| 1. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Psychosocial work environment among Swedish audiologists
- 2013
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Ingår i: International Journal of Audiology. - : Informa Healthcare. - 1499-2027 .- 1708-8186. ; 52:3, s. 151-161
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: The study examined the self-reported psychosocial work environment for audiologists working in three practice types (public, completely private, and private but publicly funded).Design: A cross-sectional e-mail survey using the demand-control-support questionnaire, a short version of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, and descriptive data.Study sample: Five-hundred Swedish licensed audiologists.Results: Overall, the results indicate differences in psychosocial work environment pertaining to the practice types. These differences are small and the type explains few percent of the variability accounted in the measures of psychosocial work environment. Social support seems important for the psychosocial work environment and is considered a reward in itself. Using the demand-control model, 29% of the audiologists reported working in a high-stress psychosocial work environment. Using the ERI-ratio to estimate the imbalance between effort and reward it was shown that that 86% of the participants experienced an unfavorable work situation where the rewards do not correspond to the efforts made.Conclusions: The organizational framework has minor effect on self-reported psychosocial work environment for Swedish licensed audiologists. The percentage of unfavorable ERI-ratios seen in Swedish audiologists seems conspicuously high compared to other working populations in general, but also compared to other health service workers.
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| 2. |
- Nirme, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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A virtual speaker in noisy classroom conditions : supporting or disrupting children’s listening comprehension?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1401-5439 .- 1651-2022. ; 44:2, s. 79-86
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim: Seeing a speaker’s face facilitates speech recognition, particularly under noisy conditions. Evidence for how it might affect comprehension of the content of the speech is more sparse. We investigated how children’s listening comprehension is affected by multi-talker babble noise, with or without presentation of a digitally animated virtual speaker, and whether successful comprehension is related to performance on a test of executive functioning. Materials and Methods: We performed a mixed-design experiment with 55 (34 female) participants (8- to 9-year-olds), recruited from Swedish elementary schools. The children were presented with four different narratives, each in one of four conditions: audio-only presentation in a quiet setting, audio-only presentation in noisy setting, audio-visual presentation in a quiet setting, and audio-visual presentation in a noisy setting. After each narrative, the children answered questions on the content and rated their perceived listening effort. Finally, they performed a test of executive functioning. Results: We found significantly fewer correct answers to explicit content questions after listening in noise. This negative effect was only mitigated to a marginally significant degree by audio-visual presentation. Strong executive function only predicted more correct answers in quiet settings. Conclusions: Altogether, our results are inconclusive regarding how seeing a virtual speaker affects listening comprehension. We discuss how methodological adjustments, including modifications to our virtual speaker, can be used to discriminate between possible explanations to our results and contribute to understanding the listening conditions children face in a typical classroom.
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| 3. |
- Laplante-Lévesque, Ariane, et al.
(författare)
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Stages of Change in Adults Who Have Failed an Online Hearing Screening
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ear and Hearing. - : LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS and WILKINS. - 0196-0202 .- 1538-4667. ; 36:1, s. 92-101
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: Hearing screening has been proposed to promote help-seeking and rehabilitation in adults with hearing impairment. However, some longitudinal studies point to low help-seeking and subsequent rehabilitation after a failed hearing screening (positive screening result). Some barriers to help-seeking and rehabilitation could be intrinsic to the profiles and needs of people who have failed a hearing screening. Theories of health behavior change could help to understand this population. One of these theories is the transtheoretical (stages-of-change) model of health behavior change, which describes profiles and needs of people facing behavior changes such as seeking help and taking up rehabilitation. According to this model, people go through distinct stages toward health behavior change: precontemplation, contemplation, action, and finally, maintenance. The present study describes the psychometric properties (construct validity) of the stages of change in adults who have failed an online hearing screening. Stages of change were measured with the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA). Principal component analysis is presented, along with cluster analysis. Internal consistency was investigated. Finally, relationships between URICA scores and speech-in-noise recognition threshold, self-reported hearing disability, and self-reported duration of hearing disability are presented. Design: In total, 224 adults who had failed a Swedish online hearing screening test (measure of speech-in-noise recognition) completed further questionnaires online, including the URICA. Results: A principal component analysis identified the stages of precontemplation, contemplation, and action, plus an additional stage, termed preparation (between contemplation and action). According to the URICA, half (50%) of the participants were in the preparation stage of change. The contemplation stage was represented by 38% of participants, while 9% were in the precontemplation stage. Finally, the action stage was represented by approximately 3% of the participants. Cluster analysis identified four stages-of-change clusters: they were named decision making (44% of sample), participation (28% of sample), indecision (16% of sample), and reluctance (12% of sample). The construct validity of the model was good. Participants who reported a more advanced stage of change had significantly greater self-reported hearing disability. However, participants who reported a more advanced stage of change did not have a significantly worse speech-in-noise recognition threshold or reported a significantly longer duration of hearing impairment. Conclusions: The additional stage this study uncovered, and which other studies have also uncovered, preparation, highlights the need for adequate guidance for adults who are yet to seek help for their hearing. The fact that very few people were in the action stage (approximately 3% of the sample) signals that screening alone is unlikely to be enough to improve help-seeking and rehabilitation rates. As expected, people in the later stages of change reported significantly greater hearing disability. The lack of significant relationships between stages-of-change measures and speech-in-noise recognition threshold and self-reported duration of hearing disability highlights the complex interplay between impairment, disability, and behaviors in adults who have failed an online hearing screening and who are yet to seek help.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Octave illusion elicited by overlapping narrowband noises.
- 2011
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Ingår i: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 1520-8524 .- 0001-4966. ; 129:5, s. 3213-3220
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The octave or Deutsch illusion occurs when two tones, separated by about one octave, are presented simultaneously but alternating between ears, such that when the low tone is presented to the left ear the high tone is presented to the right ear and vice versa. Most subjects hear a single tone that alternates both between ears and in pitch; i.e., they hear a low pitched tone in one ear alternating with a high pitched tone in the other ear. The present study examined whether the illusion can be elicited by aperiodic signals consisting of low-frequency band-pass filtered noises with overlapping spectra. The amount of spectral overlap was held constant, but the high- and low-frequency content of the signals was systematically varied. The majority of subjects perceived an auditory illusion in terms of a dominant ear for pitch and lateralization by frequency, as proposed by Deutsch [(1975a) Sci. Am. 233, 92-104]. Furthermore, the salience of the illusion increased as the high frequency of the content in the signal increased. Since no harmonics were present in the stimuli, it is highly unlikely that this illusion is perceived on the basis of binaural diplacusis or harmonic binaural fusion.
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| 6. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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On the physiological location of otoacoustic emissions
- 2001
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During recent years, much attention has been paid otoacoustic emissions in the clinical audiological practice. The received view locates their origin in the cochlea, more precisely in the outer hair cells. It is, however, still uncertain if there is an interaction between the ears regarding otoacoustic emissions. Earlier findings suggest an interaction at the level of the olivocochlear bundle. The aim of this pilot study was to find out if there is any interaction between the two cochleae in the case of otoacoustic emissions. Five subjects with normal hearing participated. Recordings were made of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions during the presentation of contralateral stimuli at three different frequencies (500, 1000 and 2000 Hz). In general, contralateral stimulation did not provoke otoacoustic emissions. It was concluded that otoacoustic emissions could be part of the fine-tuning mechanism in the cochlea. The frequency resolution, e.g. for speech, depends on very fast modulation of the incoming signal. Due to the neural distance, this modulation would lag behind, if otoacoustic emissions in one ear would effect the opposite one.
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| 7. |
- Brännström, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Should the acceptable noise level be considered to be an acceptable noise range?
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 1520-8524 .- 0001-4966. ; 134:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The acceptable noise level (ANL) test is used to quantify the amount of competing background noise (BNL) that a listener is willing to accept when listening to speech at the most comfortable level (MCL). ANL is calculated by subtracting the BNL from the MCL. Most studies show large intersubject ANL variability and a few also demonstrate large intrasubject variability. Very few predictor variables for ANL have been identified and it has been proposed that the ANL depends on an inherent characteristic of the listener. However, some of the variability seems to depend on poor precision of the ANL test. After removing the effect of poor precision, some variability still remains. One possible explanation for these findings may be that the ANL is not a single level but a range of levels. Using recent data, this presentation examines the notion of an acceptable noise range.
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