DOCSLIB.ORG

International Hearing Aid Research Conference August 13 – 17, 2008

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
International Hearing Aid Research Conference August 13 – 17, 2008 IHCON 2008 International Hearing Aid Research Conference August 13 – 17, 2008 GRANLIBAKKEN CONFERENCE CENTER LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA IHCON 2008 SPONSORS National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Department of Veterans' Affairs Deafness Research UK The Gatehouse Memorial Lecture (sponsored by the Oticon Foundation and the MHR Institute of Hearing Research, and administered by the House Ear Institute) The House Ear Institute IHCON 2008 2 August 13-17, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Conference Sponsors ...................................................2 Table of Contents.........................................................3 Planning Committee.....................................................4 Student Scholarship Recipients……………………....5 Daily Schedule…………………………………….....6 Program Summary………………………………..7-12 Oral Program........................................................ 13-42 Poster Program, Session A................................... 43-66 Poster Program, Session B................................... 67-90 Poster Program, Session C................................. 91-113 Conference Attendees ...................................... 114-122 IHCON 2008 3 August 13-17, 2008 IHCON 2008 Planning Committee Technical Chair Brian Moore Technical Co-Chair Judy Dubno Jan Wouters Organizational Co-Chair Sigfrid Soli Steering Committee Michael Akeroyd Brent Edwards, Past Technical Co-Chair MRC Institute of Hearing Research Starkey Hearing Research Center Ian Bruce Mary Florentine McMaster University Northeastern University Laurel Christensen Larry Humes GN ReSound Indiana University Wouter Dreschler Todd Ricketts Academic Medical Center Vanderbilt University Judy Dubno Pamela Souza, Past Technical Co-Chair Medical University of South Carolina University of Washington Ole Dyrlund Timothy Trine GN ReSound Starkey Laboratories IHCON 2008 4 August 13-17, 2008 Student Scholarship Recipients Name Institution Joshua M Alexander Boys Town National Research Hospital Akiko Amano-Kusumoto Oregon Health & Sciences University Stephanie Bor University of Washington Suzanne Carr Boston University Jeff Crukley University of Western Ontario, Canada Stefan Fredelake University of Applied Sciences, Germany Christian Fullgrabe University of Cambridge Kathryn Hopkins University of Cambridge Benedict Leung McMaster University Adrian Lister University of British Columbia Alicja Malicka University of Manchester Ryan McCreery Boys Town National Research Hospital Ramesh Kumar Muralimanohar University of Colorado at Boulder Melissa Polonenko University of Western Ontario Anne Schlueter University of Applied Sciences, Germany Yi Shen Indiana University Thamar Van Esch AMC Amsterdam IHCON 2008 5 August 13-17, 2008 Daily Schedule WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2008 5:00 PM Welcome Social 6:00 PM Dinner 7:30 PM Welcome Remarks 7:45 PM Keynote Address 8:45 PM Discussion 9:00 PM Evening Social THURSDAY, FRIDAY & SATURDAY, AUGUST 14-16, 2008 7:00 AM Breakfast 8:00 AM Morning Session A 9:45 AM Poster Session 11:10 AM Morning Session B 12:20 PM Lunch 5:15 PM Evening Session 7:00 PM Dinner 8:20 PM Social/Poster Session Continues SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2008 7:00 AM Breakfast and Checkout 8:00 AM Morning Session 9:10 AM Break 9:30 AM Morning Session Continues 10:40 AM Adjournment (busses leave for airport with boxed lunches for passen- gers) IHCON 2008 6 August 13-17, 2008 PROGRAM SUMMARY WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13 WELCOME AND KEYNOTE ADDRESS 7:30 PM – 8:45 PM Moderator: Peggy Nelson Welcome Remarks: Sig Soli, Brian Moore KEYNOTE ADDRESS Barbara Shinn-Cunningham Listening in complex environments, with special emphasis on the effects of hearing impairment THURSDAY, AUGUST 14 SESSION ONE 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM MECHANISMS UNDERLYING HEARING IMPAIRMENT AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN PATTERNS OF HEARING LOSS Moderator: Judy Dubno Jochen Schacht Mechanisms and prevention of acquired hearing impairment Morten Jepsen Modeling auditory perception of individ- ual hearing-impaired listeners Su-Hyun Jin Spectral resolution and interrupted speech perception IHCON 2008 7 August 13-17, 2008 POSTER SESSION A 9:45 AM – 11:00 AM SESSION TWO 11:10 AM – 12:25 PM TREATMENT OPTIONS FOR CONDUCTIVE AND MIXED LOSSES Moderator: Karolina Smeds Stefan Stenfelt Mechanisms of bone conduction and its use for hearing-impaired persons Bill Hodgetts Patient-derived versus audibility- derived fittings in BAHA users: a validation study SESSION THREE 5:15 PM – 7:00 PM COGNITIVE FACTORS INFLUENCING SPEECH PERCEPTION IN NOISE Moderator: Virginia Best Mary Rudner Aided speech recognition in noise, perceiv effort and explicit cognitive capacity Anastasios Sarampalis Understanding speech in noise with hearing loss: Measures of effort Gabrielle Saunders Performance Perceptual Test (PPT) and the Acceptable Noise Level (ANL): what do they measure? IHCON 2008 8 August 13-17, 2008 FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 SESSION FOUR 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM THE LEGACY OF STUART GATEHOUSE Moderator: Michael Akeroyd Introduction by Graham Naylor Quentin Summerfield Stuart Gatehouse's legacy for hearing research: past, present, and future William Noble A self-rating measure with emphasis on binaural hearing function: The Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing scale Adrian Davis Measuring quality in audiology: A global (or Gatehouse) framework POSTER SESSION B 9:45 AM – 11:00 AM SESSION FIVE 11:10 AM – 12:20 PM WHY YOU LOSE IT AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO Moderator: Jan Wouters Karen Avraham Human genetics of hearing loss Brian Moore The role of temporal fine structure in pitch and speech perception by people with normal and impaired hearing IHCON 2008 9 August 13-17, 2008 SESSION SIX 5:15 PM – 6:50 PM PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS RELEVANT TO AUDITORY FUNCTION IN NORMAL AND IMPAIRED HEARING Moderator: Joanna Robinson Charles Liberman Cochlear nerve degeneration after "temporary" noise-induced hearing loss Faheem Dinath Hearing aid gain prescriptions balance restoration of auditory nerve mean-rate and spike-timing representations of speech Ryan McCreery Use of forward pressure level (FPL) to minimize the influence of acoustic standing waves during probe- microphone hearing SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 SESSION SEVEN 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM CURRENT AND FUTURE TRENDS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR HEARING AIDS Moderator: Brent Edwards DeLiang Wang Computational auditory scene analysis and its potential application to hearing aids Stefan Launer Future trends in hearing instrument technol- ogy Joshua Alexander Effects of frequency lowering in wearable devices on fricative and affricate perception IHCON 2008 10 August 13-17, 2008 POSTER SESSION C 9:45 AM – 11:00 AM SESSION EIGHT 11:10 AM – 12:20 PM LARGE-SCALE STUDIES OF SIGNAL PROCESSING AND AUDITORY FUNCTION Moderator: Pamela Souza Heleen Luts Evaluation of signal enhancement strategies for hearing aids: a multicen- ter study Thamar van Esch Evaluation of the ‘Auditory Profile’ test battery in an international multi-centre study SESSION NINE 5:15 PM – 6:50 PM OCCLUSION AND OWN-VOICE PERCEPTION Moderator: Michael Stone Jorge Mejia Acoustically transparent hearing aids: an electronic vent for hearing aids Soren Laugesen A large-scale substantiation of own- voice issues in hearing-aid users, part I: There is more than just occlusion Gitte Keidser The effect of openness of the fitting on the relative loudness perception of low and high frequency sounds IHCON 2008 11 August 13-17, 2008 SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 SESSION TEN 8:00 AM – 9:10 AM AUDITORY LEARNING AND TRAINING Moderator: Christian Füllgrabe Larry Humes Improving aided speech communica- tion through auditory training: A review of current approaches and future appli- cations Monica Hawley Intervention for restricted dynamic range and reduced sound tolerance: Clinical trial using modifies Tinnitus Re- training Therapy BREAK 9:10 AM – 9:30 AM SESSION ELEVEN 9:30 AM – 10:40 AM PERCEPTUAL AND PHYSICAL MEASURES OF HEARING AID SIGNAL PROCESSING Moderator: Leonard Cornelisse Kathryn Arehart Effects of linear, nonlinear and com- bined linear and nonlinear distortion on perceived speech quality Thomas Rohdenburg Objective quality measures for (binau- ral) hearing aids Inga Holube Development and Analysis of an Inter- national Speech Test Signal (ISTS) IHCON 2008 12 August 13-17, 2008 ORAL PROGRAM Wednesday, August 13 KEYNOTE ADDRESS 7.45 PM AUDITORY OBJECT FORMATION, SELECTIVE ATTENTION, AND HEARING IMPAIRMENT Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham, Boston University Hearing Research Cen- ter A common complaint amongst hearing-impaired listeners is that they have difficulty communicating in everyday social settings when there are mul- tiple, competing talkers. In contrast with hearing-impaired listeners, nor- mal-hearing listeners are relatively good at focusing attention on a source of interest and switching attention rapidly from one talker to another. We can gain insight into the problems of the hearing-impaired by studying the ability of normal-hearing listeners to selectively attend in a complex acoustic scene. Results suggest that the ability of normal-hearing listeners to focus and switch attention depends on the ability to analyze the acoustic scene and form perceptual auditory objects properly. Unfortunately, sound features important for auditory object formation and selection may not be robustly encoded in the auditory periphery of hearing impaired listeners. Degraded acoustic cues are likely to interfere with auditory object forma- tion, reducing the ability to filter out competing sound sources. Moreover, these peripheral degradations may also reduce the salience of higher-order
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Springer Handbook of Auditory Research
    Springer Handbook of Auditory Research Series Editors: Richard R. Fay and Arthur N. Popper For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/2506 wwww Mary Florentine • Arthur N. Popper Richard R. Fay Editors Loudness with 75 Illustrations Editors Mary Florentine Richard R. Fay Department of Speech-Language Pathology Department of Psychology and Audiology with joint appointment in Loyola University Chicago Department of Electrical and Computer Chicago, IL Engineering USA Northeastern University [email protected] Boston, MA 02115 USA [email protected] Arthur N. Popper Department of Biology University of Maryland College Park, MD USA [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-6711-4 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6712-1 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6712-1 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010938801 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connec- tion with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Measures of the Ecological Loudness of Speech
    1 8 Tobias Neher et al. REFERENCES Measures of the ecological loudness of speech Akeroyd, M.A. (2008). “Are individual differences in speech reception related to 1,3,4 2,3,4 individual differences in cognitive ability? A survey of twenty experimental MARY FLORENTINE AND MICHAEL EPSTEIN studies with normal and hearing-impaired adults” Int. J. Audiol. Suppl. 2 47, 1 S53-S73. Communication Research Laboratory 2 Auditory Modeling and Processing Laboratory Blauert, J. (1997). Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound 3 Localization (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA). Dept. of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Institute for Hearing, Speech, and Language Behrens, T., Neher, T., and Johannesson, R.B. (2008). “Evaluation of speech corpus 4 for assessment of spatial release from masking” in Proceedings of ISAAR 2007: Communications and Digital Processing Center, ECE Department Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners. 1st International Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115 USA Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research. Elsinore, Denmark. Edited Most laboratory studies of binaural loudness summation show ample by T. Dau, J.M. Buchholz, J. Harte, and T.U. Christiansen. ISBN: 87-990013-1- amounts of summation (e.g., a tone presented binaurally is clearly louder 4. (The Danavox Jubilee Foundation, Copenhagen), pp. 449-457. than the same tone presented monaurally), but classroom demonstrations of Daneman, M., and Carpenter, P.A. (1980). “Individual differences in integrating this phenomenon in typical daily environments yield negligible loudness information between and within sentences” J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. summation for most listeners. To gain insight into this difference, 9, 561-584.
    [Show full text]
  • Tuning Curves and Pitch Matches in a Listener with a Unilateral, Low-Frequency Hearing Loss
    Tuning curves and pitch matches in a listener with a unilateral, low-frequency hearing loss Citation for published version (APA): Florentine, M., & Houtsma, A. J. M. (1983). Tuning curves and pitch matches in a listener with a unilateral, low- frequency hearing loss. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 73(3), 961-965. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.389021 DOI: 10.1121/1.389021 Document status and date: Published: 01/01/1983 Document Version: Publisher’s PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.
    [Show full text]
  • Meeting Abstracts
    PROGRAM OF The 118th Meeting of the AcousticalSociety of America Adam's Mark Hotel ß St. Louis, Missouri ß 27 November-1 December 1989 MONDAY EVENING, 27 NOVEMBER 1989 ST. LOUIS BALLROOM D, 7:00 TO 9:00 P.M. Tutorial on Architectural Acoustics Mauro Pierucci, Chairman Departmentof Aerospaceand EngineeringMechanics, San DiegoState University,San Diego, California 92182 TUI. Architecturalacoustics: The forgottendimension. Ewart A. Wetherill (Wilson, lhrig, and Associates, lnc., 5776 Broadway,Oakland, CA 94618) The basic considerationsof architeclural acouslics---isolation from unwanled noise and vibration, control of mechanicalsystem noise, and room acousticsdesign---are all clearly exemplifiedin Sabinc'sdesign for BostonSymphony Hall. Openedin ! 900,this hall isone of theoutstanding successes in musical acoustics. Yet, aswe approachthe hundredthanniversary of Sabine'sfirst experiments, acoustical characteristics remain one of the leastconsidered aspects of buildingdesign. This is due, in part, to the difficultyof visualizingthe acouslicaloutcome of designdecisions, complicated by individualjudgment as to whatconstitutes good acous- tics. However,the lack of a comprehensiveteaching program remains the dominantproblem. Significant advancesover the past 2 or 3 decadesin measurementand evaluationhave refinedthe ability to design predictabilityand to demonsIrateacoustical concerns to others. New techniquessuch as sound intensity measurements,new descriptors for roomacoustics phenomena, and the refinemen t of recording,analysis, and amplificationtechniques provide fresh insights into the behaviorof soundin air and other media.These topics are reviewedwith particularemphasis on the needfor a comparableadvance in translationof acousticprinci- plesinto buildingtechnologies. Sl J. Acoust.Soc. Am. Suppl. 1, VoL86, Fall1989 118thMeeting: Acoustical Society of America S1 TUESDAY MORNING, 28 NOVEMBER 1989 ST. LOUIS BALLROOM C, 8:00 A.M. TO 12:00 NOON SessionA.
    [Show full text]
  • 156 a Half-Century's Perspective on Békésy
    A HALF-CENTURY’S PERSPECTIVE ON BÉKÉSY TRACKING AND LOUDNESS GROWTH AT THRESHOLD 1 1,2 Elizabeth Rooney and Mary Florentine Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology 1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering 2 Northeastern University (106-A FR), 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 USA [email protected] and [email protected] Abstract In the more than half a century since Georg von Békésy was awarded the Nobel Prize, many of his findings have stood the test of time. Implications of the width of the excursions in the Békésy tracking procedure, however, are not as simple as described in his classic book, Experiments in Hearing (von Békésy, 1960). The interpretations of his findings have created some misunderstandings in hearing science and audiology. This article reviews a large body of data on Békésy tracking and more recent threshold, discrimination, and loudness data in order to answer the following question: Is the width of the excursions a reliable indicator of cochlear pathology? In 1947, von Békésy described a new audiometer and claimed that this new audiometer permitted the testing of recruitment. Recruitment has been defined as a rapid growth in loudness above the threshold of hearing (Fowler,1936; Steinberg and Gardner, 1937; Brunt, 1994) and was believed to be associated with all cochlear hearing losses (Dix, Hallpike, and Hood, 1948). The audiometer was automated. As the frequency of the signal increased slowly, the subject pressed a button when the signal was audible and released it when inaudible. This pressing and releasing of the button caused the level of the signal to decrease or increase, respectively, and a visible tracing of the excursions (or trackings) between the just-audible and just-inaudible pulsed tones could be observed on recording paper that was attached to a rotating drum.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporal Integration of Loudness in Listeners with Hearing Losses of Primarily Cochlear Origin
    Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Sep 25, 2021 Temporal integration of loudness in listeners with hearing losses of primarily cochlear origin Buus, Søren; Florentine, Mary; Poulsen, Torben Published in: Acoustical Society of America. Journal Link to article, DOI: 10.1121/1.424673 Publication date: 1999 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link back to DTU Orbit Citation (APA): Buus, S., Florentine, M., & Poulsen, T. (1999). Temporal integration of loudness in listeners with hearing losses of primarily cochlear origin. Acoustical Society of America. Journal, 105(6), 3464-3480. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.424673 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Temporal integration of loudness in listeners with hearing losses of primarily cochlear origina) b) So”ren Buus Communication and Digital Signal
    [Show full text]
  • Volume Preface
    Springer Handbook of Auditory Research Series Editors: Richard R. Fay and Arthur N. Popper For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/2506 wwww Mary Florentine • Arthur N. Popper Richard R. Fay Editors Loudness with 75 Illustrations Editors Mary Florentine Richard R. Fay Department of Speech-Language Pathology Department of Psychology and Audiology with joint appointment in Loyola University Chicago Department of Electrical and Computer Chicago, IL Engineering USA Northeastern University [email protected] Boston, MA 02115 USA [email protected] Arthur N. Popper Department of Biology University of Maryland College Park, MD USA [email protected] ISBN 978-1-4419-6711-4 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6712-1 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6712-1 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010938801 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connec- tion with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Loudness Functions for Long and Short Tones
    LOUDNESS FUNCTIONS FOR LONG AND SHORT TONES Mary Florentine,1,2 Michael Epstein,1,3 and Søren Buus1,3 1Institute for Hearing, Speech, and Language 2Dept. of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology (133 FR) 3Communications and Digital Signal Processing Center, ECE Dept. (440 DA) Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract This study tests the Equal-Loudness-Ratio hypothesis [Florentine et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 1633-1644 (1996)], which states that the loudness ratio between equal-SPL long and short tones is independent of SPL. The amount of temporal integration (i.e., the level difference between equally loud short and long sounds) is maximal at moderate levels. Therefore, the Equal-Loudness-Ratio hypothesis predicts that the loudness function is shallower at moderate levels than at low and high levels. Equal-loudness matches and cross- modality string-length matches were used to assess the form of the loudness function for 5- and 200-ms tones at 1 kHz and the loudness ratio between them. Results from nine normal listeners show that (1) the amount of temporal integration is largest at moderate levels, in agreement with previous studies, and (2) the loudness functions are shallowest at moderate levels. For eight of the nine listeners, the loudness ratio between the 200- and 5-ms tones is approximately constant, except at low levels where it tends to increase. The average data show good agreement between the two methods, but discrepancies are apparent for some individuals.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of Bertram Scharf's Research in France on Loudness Adaptation
    An overview of Bertram Scharf’s research in France on loudness adaptation Sabine Meunier To cite this version: Sabine Meunier. An overview of Bertram Scharf’s research in France on loudness adaptation. 21st International Congress on Acoustics, Acoustical Society of America, Jun 2013, Montreal, Canada. pp.1-7, 10.1121/1.4800471. hal-00947137 HAL Id: hal-00947137 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00947137 Submitted on 14 Feb 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. An overview of Bertram Scharf′s research in France on loudness adaptation Sabine Meunier* LMA, CNRS, UPR 7051, Aix-Marseille Univ, Centrale Marseille, F-13402 Marseille Cedex 20, France Marseille, 13402, France, France, [email protected] Since 1978, Professor Bertram Scharf divided his time between the USA and France. He was a Visiting Scientist at the Laboratoire de Mécanique et d'Acoustique in Marseille until the mid-1990s and collaborated with the University of Marseille (Faculté de Médecine) until his death. One of Bertram Scharf’s major contributions to the field of psychoacoustics is in the area of loudness. He first studied spectral loudness summation, when he started working at Harvard University.
    [Show full text]
  • Advancements in Psychophysics Lead to a New Understanding of Loudness in Normal Hearing and Hearing Loss
    ADVANCEMENTS IN PSYCHOPHYSICS LEAD TO A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF LOUDNESS IN NORMAL HEARING AND HEARING LOSS Mary Florentine Institute for Hearing, Speech, and Language and Dept. Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology (133 FR) Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA [email protected] Abstract P sychophysics has brought us to a better understanding of loudness growth in subjects with normal hearing and hearing loss of primarily cochlear origin. Three trends in psychophysics have led the way: (1) investigations of the relationship between temporal integration of loudness and the loudness function, (2) investigations of individual differences in loudness functions among normal listeners and listeners with different types of hearing losses, and (3) investigations of how context affects loudness. These trends were aided by technological developments that permitted large amounts of data to be modeled. T his has important theoretical implications for understanding loudness in people with normal hearing and hearing losses, as well as applied applications to impr ove hear ing-aid design. The purpose of this invited paper is to review some psychophysical developments that have led to a better understanding of loudness in subjects with normal hearing and hearing losses over the past twenty-five years at Northeastern University. As is the case in most of science, knowledge has progressed in incremental steps. Three major areas of investigation are noteworthy and are reviewed in the following sections. 1. Investigations of temporal integration of loudness and the loudness function The puzzling question of how to reconcile two sets of loudness data from normal-hearing listeners has been solved. One set of data clearly indicates that the amount of temporal integration for loudness varies nonmonotonically with level and is greatest at moderate levels (Florentine et al., 1996; Buus et al., 1997).
    [Show full text]
  • Verbal Expression of Emotional Impression of Sound: a Cross-Cultural Study
    J. A-coust. Soc. Jpn.(E) 12, 1 (1991) Verbal expression of emotional impression of sound: A cross-cultural study Seiichiro Namba,*1 Sonoko Kuwano,*1 Takeo Hashimoto,*2 Birgitta Berglund,*3 Zheng Da Rui,*4 August Schick,*5 Holger Hoege," and Mary Florentine" *1College of General Education , Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, 560 Japan *2Facultv of Enkineerink , Seikei University, 3-3-1 Kichijoji-Kitamachi, Musashino, 180 Japan *3 Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden *4 Institute of Acoustics , Academia Sinica, 5 Zhongguancun Street, Beijing, China *5lnstitut zur Erforschung von Mensch-Umwelt Beziehungen, Psychologie, Fachbereich- 5, Universitaet Oldenburg, Postfach 2503, D-2900 Oldenburg, F. R. Germany *6Communication Research Laboratory , Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue 133FR, Boston, MA 02115 U.S.A. (Received 6 September 1990) Emotional expression of four levels of six kinds of sound (aircraft noise, train noise, road traffic noise, speech, music and construction noise) was examined using the method of selected description in five countries-Japan, Sweden, West Germany, China and the U.S. Subject were asked to select the adjectives which they thought appropriate for expressing the impression of each sound. Using the method of selected description, the differences and similarities between sound sources and use of adjectives were expressed more clearly than when conventional semantic differential was used. On the basis of the adjectives selected and cluster analysis, it was found for sounds used in this experi mentthat "loud" in Japan, Sweden and China has neutral connotations while "loud" in Germany and the U.S. has negative connotations. It was also suggested that "noisy" and "annoying" are not differentiated in Japan, while in the other four countries these two adjectives are differentially used.
    [Show full text]
  • Measurement of Loudness, Part I: Methods, Problems, and Pitfalls
    Chapter 2 Measurement of Loudness, Part I: Methods, Problems, and Pitfalls Lawrence E. Marks and Mary Florentine 2.1 Introduction It is a matter of everyday experience that sounds vary in their perceived strength, from the barely perceptible whisper coming from across the room to the over- whelming roar of a jet engine coming from the end of an airport runway. Loudness is a salient feature of auditory experience, closely associated with measures of acoustical level (energy, power, or pressure) but not identical to any of them. It is a relatively straightforward matter for a person to note whether one sound is louder or softer than another, or to rank order a set of sounds with regard to their loudness. To measure loudness, however, in the typical sense of “measuring,” requires more than just ranking the experiences from softest to loudest. It entails quantifying how much louder (e.g., determining whether the ratio or difference in the loudness of sounds A and B is greater or smaller than the ratio or difference in loudness of sounds C and D). The quantitative measurement of loudness in this sense is important both to basic research and to its applications – important to scientists seeking to understand neural mechanisms and behavioral processes involved in hearing and to scientists, engi- neers, and architects concerned with the perception of noise in factories and other industrial settings, in the streets of urban centers, and in residences located along flight paths and near airports. As Laird et al. (1932) wrote more than three-quarters of a century ago, in an article describing one of the earliest attempts to quantify the perception of loudness, When a considerable amount of money is to be appropriated for making a work place quieter, for instance, the engineer can say that after acoustical material is added the noise level will be reduced by five or ten decibels.
    [Show full text]