The Persian Version of the Abbreviated Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure: Validity and Reliability Assessment

Speech perception in noise involves recognizing speech sounds. Given the importance of working memory in speech perception and the lack of an auditory Working Memory (WM) test in Persian with appropriate lexical load, this study aimed to validate the Persian version of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) in normal-hearing Persian speakers.

The study involved two main stages: developing the Persian version and evaluating its validity and reliability. Participants included 59 monolinguals, Persianspeaking, normal-hearing college students aged 18–25 in Tehran, Iran, in 2023. Persian words were selected with the help of a linguistics expert based on phonetic and semantic features. Face and content validity were assessed by 10 experts. The WARRM test and the forward and backward digit span tests were administered. To assess the test-retest reliability, the test was performed by 30 participants at a 2-week interval and measured by the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC).

The WARRM test showed good face and content validity. The internal consistency was 0.72 for the overall test, 0.49 for the recognition subtest, 0.73 for the judgment subtest, and 0.87 for the recall subtest. The ICC values were 0.88 (overall), 0.89 (recall), and 0.48 (recognition). Significant positive correlations were found between the WARRM score and the scores of the forward digit span (r=0.65, p<0.001) and backward digit span (r=0.43, p<0.001).

The Persian version of the abbreviated WARRM has good validity and reliability for use in clinical and rehabilitation studies on Persian speaker.