The Swedish Hayling task,and its relation to working memory,verbal ability,and speech‐recognition‐in‐noise

Cognitive functions and speech‐recognition‐in‐noise were evaluated with a cognitive test battery, assessing response inhibition using the Hayling task, working memory capacity (WMC) and verbal information processing, and an auditory test of speech recognition. The cognitive tests were performed in silence whereas the speech recognition task was presented in noise. Thirty young normally‐hearing individuals participated in the study. The aim of the study was to investigate one executive function, response inhibition, and whether it is related to individual working memory capacity (WMC), and how speech‐recognition‐in‐noise relates to WMC and inhibitory control. The results showed a significant difference between initiation and response inhibition, suggesting that the Hayling task taps cognitive activity responsible for executive control. Our findings also suggest that high verbal ability was associated with better performance in the Hayling task. We also present findings suggesting that individuals who perform well on tasks involving response inhibition, and WMC, also perform well on a speech‐in‐noise task. Our findings indicate that capacity to resist semantic interference can be used to predict performance on speech‐in‐noise tasks.     

Change deafness for simultaneous voices

Apparent changes in auditory scenes are often unnoticed. This change deafness phenomenon was examined in auditory scenes that comprise human voices. In two experiments, listeners were required to detect changes between two auditory scenes comprising two, three, and four talkers who voiced four‐syllable words. One of the voices in the first scene was randomly selected and was replaced with a new word in change trials. The rationale was that higher stimulus familiarity conferred by human voices compared to other everyday sounds, together with encoding and memory advantages for verbal stimuli and the modular processing of speech in auditory processing, should positively influence the change detection efficiency, and the change deafness phenomenon should not be observed when listeners are explicitly required to detect the obvious changes. Contrary to the prediction, change deafness was significantly observed in three‐ and four‐talker conditions. This indicates that change deafness occurs in listeners even for highly familiar stimuli. This suggests the limited ability for perceptual organization of auditory scenes comprising even a relatively small number of voices (three or four).     

When soft voices die: auditory verbal hallucinations and a four letter word (love)

Understandings of auditory verbal hallucinations (also referred to as “hearing voices”), and help for people distressed by them, are dominated by a biomedical framework. Yet, many people who have sought help for the distress and/or impairment caused by hearing voices express dissatisfaction with treatment solely within this framework, highlighting the need for a more rounded, biopsychosocial-spiritual approach. This paper examines the neglected role of a fundamental part of human experience, love, in the experience of hearing voices. First, we argue a lack of love is likely to play a causal role in voice-hearing experiences. Second, we demonstrate that a lack of love is central to the distress and dysfunction often caused by hearing voices. Finally, we show that love plays a core role in recovery. Given this centrality of love, we argue that an interdisciplinary approach to hearing voices involving the mind sciences and theology/religion may be fruitful. The relevance of this for psychotherapeutic interventions for people who hear voices is discussed.     

Hearing Impairment, Coping Strategies, and Anxiety Sensitivity

The aim was to study coping strategies among hearing-impaired individuals by using a validated coping instrument—The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ; S. Folkman & R. Lazarus, 1988)—and to relate the use of coping with anxiety sensitivity and experience of hearing impairment. A questionnaire booklet was sent out to the members of the local branch of the Swedish Hard of Hearing Association. Ninety-four members responded to the questionnaire, yielding a 53% response rate. Primary outcome measures were the WOCQ, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, and visual analogue scale rating of discomfort from hearing impairment. Repeated measures analysis of WOCQ subscales showed that the participants used planful problem solving and self-controlling coping strategies whereas escape/avoidance responses were less frequently used than the other coping strategies. Anxiety sensitivity was associated with escape/avoidance coping (r = .63, p < .0001). In conclusion, hearing-impaired individuals do not use escape/avoidance coping more than other coping strategies. However, escape/avoidance coping is associated with anxiety sensitivity, suggesting that sensitivity to anxiety sensations is an important associated factor. Coping strategies were not associated with discomfort from hearing impairment in any meaningful way.     

Potential perceptual bases for successful use of a vibrotactile speech perception aid

This paper examines the possibility that perception of vibrotactile speech stimuli is enhanced in adults with early and life-long use of hearing aids. We present evidence that vibrotactile aid benefit in adults is directly related to the age at which the hearing aid was fitted and the duration of its use. The stimulus mechanism responsible for this effect is hypothesized to be long-term vibrotactile stimulation by high powered hearing aids. We speculate on possible mechanisms for enhanced vibrotactile speech perception as the result of hearing aid use: (1) long-term experience receiving degraded or impoverished speech stimuli results in a speech processing system that is more effective for novel stimuli, independent of perceptual modality; and/or (2) long-term sensory/perceptual experience causes neural changes that result in more effective delivery of speech information via somatosensory pathways.     

Childhood Interrupted: A Story of Loss,Separation, and Reconciliation

This essay presents a story of personal loss and childhood trauma experienced by the author in 1968. Written in autoethnographic form, the author narrates a particular time in his life when he lost his hearing and subsequently experienced “disrupted attachment”(Becker, 1997 Becker, G. (1997). Disrupted lives: How people create meaning in a chaotic world. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]) caused by forced separation from family on the day he began life at a residential school for deaf children. Forty-six years later, the author weaves together a narrative of loss and trauma followed by his own reflections, showing how he used writing conversation as a source of healing that allowed him reconcile with his past.     

Effects of Age on Dual-Task Walking While Listening

This study examined the effects of age on single- and dual-task listening and walking during virtual street crossing. Seventeen younger and 12 older adults participated. In each listening trial, three sentences were presented simultaneously from separate locations. Participants were instructed to report the target sentence. Predictability of the target sentence location was varied. Treadmill walking was measured using motion analysis. Measures included word recognition accuracy, head and trunk angles, and spatiotemporal gait parameters. Older adults exhibited a more upright head alignment and less variability in stride time during dual-tasking, particularly under less certain target sentence location conditions. Younger adults’ walking was unaffected by dual-task demands. Together, the results indicate greater postural prioritization in older adults than young.     

Effects of children’s hearing loss on the synchrony between parents’ object naming and children’s attention

Children’s attentional state during parent-child interactions is important for word learning. The current study examines the real-time attentional patterns of toddlers with and without hearing loss (N = 15, age range: 12–37 months) in parent-child interactions. High-density gaze data recorded from head-mounted eye-trackers were used to investigate the synchrony between parents’ naming of novel objects and children’s sustained attention on the named objects in joint play. Results show that the sheer quantities of parents’ naming and children’s sustained attention episodes were comparable in children with hearing loss and their peers with normal hearing. However, parents’ naming and children’s sustained attention episodes were less synchronized in the hearing loss group compared to children with normal hearing. Possible implications are discussed.     

听障者语音编码的研究范式述评

对于健听者而言,语音编码在阅读中具有重要作用。听障者在阅读中是否存在语音编码？对于拼音文字而言,这个问题目前国际上存在很大的争议。中国听障者在阅读中是否使用了语音编码也逐渐开始受到重视。为了给国内研究听障者语音编码的学者提供参考,本文介绍了考察听障者语音编码研究中常用的研究范式,包括实验程序、逻辑及相应的研究成果。最后,对今后我国听障者语音编码的研究进行了展望。