1.
Hua, Håkan, et al.
(author)
The impact of different background noises : effects on cognitive performance and perceived disturbance in employees with aided hearing impairment and normal hearing
2014
In: Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. - : American Academy of Audiology. - 1050-0545 .- 2157-3107. ; 25:9, s. 859-868
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Background: Health care professionals frequently meet employees with hearing impairment (HI) who experience difficulties at work. There are indications that the majority of these difficulties might be related to the presence of background noise. Moreover, research has also shown that high-level noise has a more detrimental effect on cognitive performance and self-rated disturbance in individuals with HI than low-level noise.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of different types of background noise on cognitive performance and perceived disturbance (PD) in employees with aided HI and normal hearing.Research Design: A mixed factorial design was conducted to examine the effect of noise in four experimental conditions.Study Sample: A total of 40 participants (21 men and 19 women) were recruited to take part in the study. The study sample consisted of employees with HI (n = 20) and normal hearing (n = 20). The group with HI had a mild-moderate sensorineural HI, and they were all frequent hearing-aid users.Intervention: The current study was conducted by using four general work-related tasks (mental arithmetic, orthographic decoding, phonological decoding, and serial recall) in four different background conditions: (1) quiet, (2) office noise at 56 dBA, (3) daycare noise at 73.5 dBA, and (4) traffic noise at 72.5 dBA. Reaction time and the proportion of correct answers in the working tasks were used as outcome measures of cognitive performance. The Borg CR-10 scale was used to assess PD.Data Collection and Analysis: Data collection occurred on two separate sessions, completed within 4 wk of each other. All tasks and experimental conditions were used in a counterbalanced order. Two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was performed to analyze the results. To examine interaction effects, pairwise t-tests were used. Pearson correlation coefficients between reaction time and proportion of correct answers, and cognitive performance and PD were also calculated to examine the possible correlation between the different variables.Results: No significant between-group or within-group differences in cognitive performance were observed across the four background conditions. Ratings of PD showed that both groups rated PD according to noise level, where higher noise level generated a higher PD. The present findings also demonstrated that the group with HI was more disturbed by higher than lower levels of noise (i.e., traffic and daycare setting compared with office setting). This pattern was observed consistently throughout four working tasks where the group with HI reported a significantly greater PD in the daycare and traffic settings compared with office noise.Conclusions: The present results demonstrate that background noise does not impair cognitive performance in nonauditory tasks in employees with HI and normal hearing, but that PD is affected to a greater extent in employees with HI during higher levels of background noise exposure. In addition, this study also supports previous studies regarding the detrimental effects that high-level noise has on employees with HI. Therefore, we emphasize the need of both self-rated and cognitive measurements in hearing care and occupational health services for both employees with normal hearing and HI.
2.
Nakeva von Mentzer, Cecilia, et al.
(author)
Segmental and suprasegmental properties in nonword repetition : An explorative study of the associations with nonword decoding in children with normal hearing and children with bilateral cochlear implants
2015
In: Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. - London, UK : Informa Healthcare. - 0269-9206 .- 1464-5076. ; 29:3, s. 216-235
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
The present study explored nonword repetition (NWR) and nonword decoding in normalhearing (NH) children and in children with cochlear implants (CIs). Participants were 11 children with bilateral CIs, 5:0-7:11 years (M = 6.5 yrs.), and 11 NH children, individually age-matched to the children with CIs. The purpose was twofold; to thoroughly describe aspects of repetition and decoding of novel words and to study possible associations between them. All children were assessed after having practiced with a computer-assisted reading intervention with a phonics approach during four weeks. Results showed that NH children outperformed children with CIs on the majority of aspects of NWR. The analysis of syllable length in NWR revealed that children with CIs made more syllable omissions than did the NH children, and predominantly in prestressed positions. Additionally, the consonant cluster analysis showed significantly more consonant omissions and substitutions in children with CIs suggesting that reaching fine- grained levels of phonological processing was particularly difficult for these children. No significant difference was found for decoding accuracy between the groups, as measured by percent nonwords and percent phonemes correctly decoded, but differences were observed regarding error patterns. Further, phoneme deletions and lexicalizing of nonwords occurred more often in children with CIs than in those with NH. The correlation analysis revealed that the ability to repeat consonant clusters in NWR had the strongest associations to nonword decoding in both groups.
3.
4.
Asker-Árnason, Lena, et al.
(author)
The Relationship between Reading Comphehension, Working Memory and Language in Children with Cochlear Implants
2007
In: Acta Neuropsychologica. - 1730-7503 .- 2084-4298. ; 5:4, s. 163-186
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
and profound hearing impairment treated by cochlear implants (CI). In this study we explore this relationship in sixteen Swedish children with CI. We found that over 60% of the children with CI performed at the level of their hearing peers in a reading comprehension test. Demographic factors were not predictive of reading comprehension, but a complex working memory task was. Reading percentile was significantly correlated to the working memory test, but no other correlations between reading and cognitive/linguistic factors remained significant after age was factored out. Individual results from a comparison of the two best and the two poorest readers corroborate group results, confirming the important role of working memory for reading as measured by comprehension of words and sentences in this group of children.
5.
Lyxell, Björn, et al.
(author)
Cognitive development in children with cochlear implants: Relations to reading and communication
2008
In: International Journal of Audiology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1708-8186 .- 1499-2027. ; 47:S2, s. 47-52
Conference paper (peer-reviewed) abstract
The purpose of the present article is to present an overview of a set of studies conducted in our own laboratory on cognitive and communicative development in children with cochlear implants (CI). The results demonstrate that children with CIs perform at significantly lower levels on the majority of the cognitive tasks. The exceptions to this trend are tasks with relatively lower demands on phonological processing. A fairly high proportion of the children can reach a level of reading comprehension that matches hearing children, despite the fact that they have relatively poor phonological skills. General working memory capacity is further correlated with the type of questions asked in a referential communication task. The results are discussed with respect to issues related to education and rehabilitation.
6.
Socher, Michaela, et al.
(author)
Pragmatic Language Skills : A Comparison of Children With Cochlear Implants and Children Without Hearing Loss
2019
In: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-1078. ; 10
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Pragmatic language ability refers to the ability to use language in a social context. It has been found to be correlated with success in general education for deaf and hard of hearing children. It is therefore of great importance to study why deaf and hard of hearing children often perform more poorly than their hearing peers on tests measuring pragmatic language ability. In the current study the Pragmatics Profile questionnaire from the CELF-IV battery was used to measure pragmatic language ability in children using cochlear implants (N = 14) and children without a hearing loss (N = 34). No significant difference was found between the children with cochlear implants (CI) and the children without hearing loss (HL) for the sum score of the pragmatics language measure. However, 35.71% of the children with CI performed below age norm, while only 5.89% of the children without HL performed below age norm. In addition, when dividing the sum score into three sub-measures: Rituals and Conversational skills (RCS), Asking for, Giving, and Responding to Information (AGRI), and Nonverbal Communication skills (NCS), significant differences between the groups were found for the NCS measure and a tendency for a difference was found for the RCS measure. In addition, all three sub-measures (NCS, AGRI, RCS) were correlated to verbal fluency in the children with CI, but not the children without HL.
7.
Socher, Michaela, et al.
(author)
The relationship between reasoning and language ability : comparing children with cochlear implants and children with typical hearing
2022
In: Logopedics, Phoniatrics, Vocology. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1401-5439 .- 1651-2022. ; 47:2, s. 73-83
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
PurposeLanguage has been suggested to play a facilitating role for analogical reasoning tasks, especially for those with high complexity. This study aims to evaluate if differences in analogical reasoning ability between children with cochlear implants (CI) and children with typical hearing (TH) might be explained by differences in language ability.MethodsThe analogical reasoning ability (verbal; non-verbal; complex non-verbal: high relational integration demand) of children with CI (N = 15, mean age = 6;7) was compared to two groups of children with TH: age and language matched (TH-A+L, N = 23, mean age = 6;5), and age matched (TH-A, N = 23, mean age = 6;5).ResultsChildren with CI were found to perform comparable to Group TH-A+L on non-verbal reasoning tasks but significantly more poorly on a verbal analogical reasoning task. Children with CI were found to perform significantly more poorly on both the non-verbal analogical reasoning task with high relational integration demand and on the verbal analogical reasoning task compared to Group TH-A. For the non-verbal analogical reasoning task with lower relational integration demand only a tendency for a difference between group CI and Group TH-A was found.ConclusionsThe results suggest that verbal strategies are influencing the performance on the non-verbal analogical reasoning tasks with a higher relational integration demand. The possible reasons for this are discussed. The verbal analogical reasoning task used in the current study partly measured lexical access. Differences between the children with CI and both groups of children with TH might therefore be explained by differences in expressive vocabulary skills.
8.
Thorslund, Birgitta, 1976-, et al.
(author)
The influence of hearing loss on transport safety and mobility
2013
In: European Transport Research Review. - : Springer. - 1867-0717 .- 1866-8887. ; 5:3, s. 117-127
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Purpose: To examine how road users with different degree of hearing loss experience safety and mobility in transport situations, compared to road users with normal hearing.Methods: A questionnaire study was conducted with participants recruited from the local branch of The Swedish hard of hearing society. A normal hearing control group, matched on age, gender and geographical location, was selected from a commercial database. The response rate was 35% (n = 194) in the group with Hearing Loss (HL) and 42% (n = 125) in the group with Normal Hearing (NH). The individuals with hearing loss were grouped into four groups according to the degree of their hearing loss (mild, moderate, severe and profound).Results: Hearing loss affected some specific aspects regarding transport situations, while others remained unaffected. Individuals with hearing loss were not as likely to have a driving license, but for those who have, hearing loss had no effect on mileage per year. Loss of hearing had an effect on criteria for choosing mode of transportation, but in the aggregate, no difference between the groups could be shown in the distribution of how much each mode of transportation was used. With a few exceptions, hearing loss did not affect the ratings of importance of hearing for different transportation modes. Hearing loss affected most questions regarding hearing and driver abilities, while avoidance of specific traffic situations was not associated with hearing loss. Hearing loss had only minor effects on the factors causing inattention when driving, and on the interest in a warning system for driver inattention. The interest in a warning system for driver inattention was high regardless of hearing category.Conclusions: Hearing loss influences the prevalence of driving license and criteria for choosing mode of transportation, however has no effect on the distribution of how much each mode of transportation was used. In general, in this study, respondents with higher degree of hearing loss were less concerned about the effect of hearing loss, indicating that they might be using coping strategies. The interest in warning system for inattention and the attitude towards strengthening of auditory information in traffic situations is high regardless of hearing category. This suggests further research on coping strategies and on design of support systems accessible for drivers with hearing loss.
9.
Ellis, Rachel, et al.
(author)
Predicting Speech-in-Noise Recognition from Performance on the Trail Making Test: Results from a Large-Scale Internet Study
2016
In: Ear and Hearing. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 0196-0202 .- 1538-4667. ; 37:1, s. 73-79
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the utility of an internet-based version of the trail making test (TMT) to predict performance on a speech-in-noise perception task.Design: Data were taken from a sample of 1509 listeners aged between 18 and 91 years old. Participants completed computerized versions of the TMT and an adaptive speech-in-noise recognition test. All testing was conducted via the internet.Results: The results indicate that better performance on both the simple and complex subtests of the TMT are associated with better speech-in-noise recognition scores. Thirty-eight percent of the participants had scores on the speech-in-noise test that indicated the presence of a hearing loss.Conclusions: The findings suggest that the TMT may be a useful tool in the assessment, and possibly the treatment, of speech-recognition difficulties. The results indicate that the relation between speech-in-noise recognition and TMT performance relates both to the capacity of the TMT to index processing speed and to the more complex cognitive abilities also implicated in TMT performance.
10.
Kallioinen, Petter, et al.
(author)
Semantic Processing in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children : Large N400 Mismatch Effects in Brain Responses, Despite Poor Semantic Ability
2016
In: Frontiers in Psychology. - London : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 7
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Difficulties in auditory and phonological processing affect semantic processing in speech comprehension for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. However, little is known about brain responses related to semantic processing in this group. We investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) in DHH children with cochlear implants (CIs) and/or hearing aids (HAs), and in normally hearing controls (NH). We used a semantic priming task with spoken word primes followed by picture targets. In both DHH children and controls, cortical response differences between matching and mismatching targets revealed a typical N400 effect associated with semantic processing. Children with CI had the largest mismatch response despite poor semantic abilities overall; Children with CI also had the largest ERP differentiation between mismatch types, with small effects in within-category mismatch trials (target from same category as prime) and large effects in between-category mismatch trials (where target is from a different category than prime), compared to matching trials. Children with NH and HA had similar responses to both mismatch types. While the large and differentiated ERP responses in the CI group were unexpected and should be interpreted with caution, the results could reflect less precision in semantic processing among children with CI, or a stronger reliance on predictive processing.
