Tehran University of Medical Sciences Auditory and Vestibular Research 2423-480X 0 0 2025 11 10 1495 1495 Zahra Moeinfard Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences Mohammad Ebrahim Mahdavi Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Hamid Jalilvand Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. 2025 10 10 2025 11 01 Background and Aim: Speech audiometry assesses functional hearing beyond pure-tone thresholds, reflecting real-world speech perception. The present study compared whole-word and phoneme scoring methods for the Persian SBMU-1 monosyllabic word lists presented in speech-spectrum noise to determine their psychometric equivalence and sensitivity to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) changes. Methods: Twenty-two young adults with normal hearing participated. SBMU-1 consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) words were presented binaurally at six SNRs (−5, 0, +5, +10, +15, +20 dB) in speech-spectrum noise at 60 dB HL. Recognition performance was analyzed using whole-word and phoneme scoring. List equivalency and scoring effects were examined using Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with Bonferroni correction. Results: Speech recognition improved systematically with increasing SNR for both scoring methods. Phoneme scoring consistently yielded higher scores than whole-word scoring, especially under low SNRs, revealing a 10–20% performance advantage. At high SNRs, the two methods converged. Across lists, differences were minor and list-specific, confirming the general equivalency of SBMU -1 lists in noise. Conclusion: Phoneme scoring provides a more sensitive measure of perceptual performance in noise by capturing partial recognition, whereas whole-word scoring better represents functional communication ability. The SBMU-1 word lists are psychometrically balanced and suitable for both clinical and research applications in Persian speech audiometry. https://avr.tums.ac.ir/index.php/avr/article/view/1495