APA Dictionary of Psychology

a test to evaluate auditory processing in which the participant listens to a single-syllable word and then identifies it from among several printed alternatives. The response choices are grouped into six-item lists within which the vowels in the words are held constant as either the initial or final consonants change (e.g., beam, bead, beach, beat, beak, bean). [developed in 1965 by Arthur S. House, Carl E. Williams, Michael H. L. Hecker, and psychoacoustician Karl D. Kryter (1914–2013)]