Hearing test
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A hearing test is an evaluation of the sensitivity of a person's sense of hearing, most often performed by an audiologist. It is used to determine a person's hearing sensitivity at different frequencies.
A hearing test is usually administered to a person by having them sit in a soundproof booth with a large set of headphones over the ears. The headphones are able to produce tones at specific and exact frequencies and set intensities to each ear independently. The audiologists plots the loudness (in decibels) each tone must be raised to before the test recipient is able to hear it. The person getting a hearing test usually conveys that they have heard the tone to the tester by either raising their hand or pressing a button. As the test progresses, the audiologist plots points on a graph where the frequency is on the x-axis and the loudness on the y-axis. Once each frequency of normal hearing ability is tested and plotted the points are joined by a line so that one can see at a glance the frequencies a person is not hearing normally and the severity of the deviation from the norm.