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Faking an Ear Test

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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 ?

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.

@tnaud92 said:

I see malingerers nearly every day.

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.

So maybe a change at 1 or 4 kHz. I’ll be interested to know what the thresholds are on your next test.

No insurance. I will try another audiologist to see if my is similar or not. The person that did my hearing test used 3 tones per freq to confirm.

In reply to @DBLDPR

That test gets kinda confusing, because on the lower tones, I feel it vibrating but don’t hear the sound, it can make you push the button when you did not mean to…On my right ear , you can see where it happened in the 2nd lowest frequency…

I know this is an old topic, and I apologise for bringing it up again.
In the past, I have pressed the button as soon as I thought I heard a sound. After thinking about it though, I don’t think this is the correct way to do it. In my last test, I waited until I was sure I was actually hearing something. Like you would in the real world. It changed my thresholds for the lower frequencies considerably, but did nothing for the upper ones, where I have a lot of loss. This is not an attempt to game the test, but rather a change in the way I think I should respond when tested. I doubt it will change the way my aids are programmed.

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