I don’t have much confidence that the standard hearing test is accurate. With low frequencies, I am sitting listening intently for some sound. As soon as I think I hear something, I press the button. But, in the time it takes me to realize I heard something and the button press, the level has gotten higher. I couldn’t say what the frequency was, since the level is low, and I am in a hurry. On the high frequencies, my tinnitus tends to mask the sound. Using a pulsed tone, or warble tone helps, but with my high loss, I don’t know if there is a tone there or not. I once had an Audiologist stop the test, open the booth door, and ask me if i was aware I had to press the button. The tone he was sending was exactly like my tinnitus, and I just thought it had suddenly gotten worse. It does that at times. While I don’t know if you could actually fake a higher loss, I think you could easily produce results that would confuse the Audiologist. To what end, I couldn’t say.
Hearing is subjective anyway you look at it. I don’t know any other way to test it. All I know is that my Audi test my hearing then he adjusts my aids and I can hear better, so I believe it is doing all it can do.
I CHEATED! Back in the 60s, hearing tests were given at school to groups of kids at a time. Instead of listening for the tone, I watched when all the other kids heard it & raised my hand right along with them. 
If you wish to read 'between the lines", go ahead…but I would have used “For my mom”.
Reason is that I’m an elec engineer that has an interest in HA technology and the subjectivity of the results from audi testing. I wonder why people (including myself) want to at some point revert to self programming. I just want some feedback - and it seems justified by some responses - that some may ‘fake’ their levels to try and get an “enhanced” result - so it gets me thinking, could their be a better method. I obviously don’t know enough about the test gear as I’m not in that field - so more research from my part required.
I listen to the radio when I go to bed. Helps with the tinnitus.
If you ‘cheat’ you are only cheating yourself. Nothing to be gained IMHO.
It’s usually not too bad–I have used the phonak tinnitus app even with other HA’s. Sometimes just thinking about something else does the trick. (And if all else fails a little white dog licking at my ears is a pretty powerful distraction
It does happen from time to time but us clinicians have a few tricks up our sleeve if we suspect someone is trying to fudge the test
I know for a fact that they can and do check here in the UK as a couple of years ago I requested a test for cochlear implants from NHS, their whole aim would appear to be to prevent you actually getting CI’s (due to costs) as they keep moving the goalposts and over the years the required threshold has altered… prior to the hearing test electrodes are placed around your head and I am assuming here that they check the brain reaction with the corresponding hearing test? So there is no faking… cheers Kev.
not possible if audi suspect then he repeatedly and randomly play tone by changing intensity and frequency loudness. and you will be trapped easily. and it will be correlated with bone conduction with mri or ct easily show you are lying. so not preferable to faking audiogram. accurate audiogram is key to successful fitting
The VA has a last test they do. They put a device on top of your head and behind you ear and they run sounds thru the device if it is different than what you are telling them on the button they know you were cheating.
I believe my Mom was faking it when I took her to my audiologist for a test. She’d raise her hand before she actually heard the tones. Fortunately the audiologist was experienced enough to notice.
You could try. It probably wouldn’t be successful. We have many tricks up our sleeves. I see malingerers nearly every day. I very quickly know they’re faking and very quickly attempt to correct it. If a patient won’t cooperate, I end the test and kindly ask them to either return another day or see someone else. I will not report results that I know to be inconsistent.
how provider will differentiate result i.e one taken in sound proof environment and in open office space. probably second one can be worse. and inconsistent response due to central processing disorder? i am curious to know does it can be detected by MRI?
I think it would be hard to fake a hearing test as during my first lengthy test with nhs the pitch and loudness were played randomly and repeated in same way. Also a kind if collar was put round my neck and sounds were played but I didn’t have to indicate wether I could hear anything. I don’t know what exactly this was but the audiologist was able to determine what sounds I was picking up and an idea what the type of loss was. Just a question regarding this I wondered if anyone knows what this type of test actually does as at the time I didn’t take much notice. However I detract and think that it’s not really pooible to fake a test and if for fraudulent purposes then the person in question would soon be put under scrutiny if that was suspected. I do agree a little that if you barely hear the sound wether that needs to be discussed as I my test I wondered wether I was imagining or actually detectin a sound. Good luck
Julia
I get fakers every few months, generally between the ages of 8 and 13. It’s very easy to tell.
Often my adults are concerned that their results are going to be better than they should be because they are pressing the button so much, or that their tinnitus is going to mess things up, but it really doesn’t work that way.
You can also get a pretty good feel for an individual’s signal detection criteria. That is, I can tell who is waiting until they are sure they hear a beep and who is hitting the button as soon as they think they might hear something and take that into account with the fitting.
Jeeze. What population do you work with that sees so many fakers?
My previous hearing test have been inaccurate because of my Tinnitus and was not sure if it was the T or the test tones. Last month, for the first time, l was taking a Rx to help calm my T during sleep and l took the pill 2 hours before the hearing test and heard the test tones without the Tinnitus.
Interesting. How much did your thresholds change?
250- 5dB
500-5dB
1k-10 dB
1.5k- 5dB
2k- 5dB
4k- 15dB
8k- 7 dB
The dBs were higher than my 2016 audiogram results.
So maybe a change at 1 or 4 kHz. I’ll be interested to know what the thresholds are on your next test.