Acoustic‐reflex thresholds were determined as a function of activating‐signal bandwidth in ten subjects with normal hearing sensitivity and eight subjects with noise‐induced sensorineural hearing loss. Results from the normal‐hearing group indicated that reflex thresholds decreased in a curvilinear fashion as a function of signal bandwidth in log frequency. Sensorineural hearing loss altered the functions by elevating reflex thresholds for signals in which the spectral content of the activating signal corresponded to the frequency region of the hearing loss. A method was proposed in which reflex thresholds for various tonal and bandlimited signals were used for predicting hearing sensitivity by frequency region.Subject Classification: [43]65.24, [43]65.22, [43]65.75.