Written by Travis M. Moore
Last edited 5-Nov-2020
If you ask a layperson to describe a hearing test, chances are you'll get an answer like "you raise your hand when you hear the beep." While this can and often does happen during a hearing test, there is so much more going on. In fact, audiologists don't just test hearing per se, but test the integrity of many components of the entire auditory system itself.
The lessons in this module will take you on a tour of the peripheral and central auditory system. Each test in the battery checks the function of a particular part of the auditory pathway. We begin with a simple visual inspection of the outer ear, then move on to checking the function of the middle ear using specialized equipment. From there most of the remaining tests assess how patients respond to a variety of sounds (tones, speech, speech in noise) using a variety of transducers.