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- Keidser, Gitte, et al.
(author)
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The Quest for Ecological Validity in Hearing Science: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Advance It
- 2020
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In: Ear and Hearing. - : LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. - 0196-0202 .- 1538-4667. ; 41, s. 5S-19S
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ecological validity is a relatively new concept in hearing science. It has been cited as relevant with increasing frequency in publications over the past 20 years, but without any formal conceptual basis or clear motive. The sixth Eriksholm Workshop was convened to develop a deeper understanding of the concept for the purpose of applying it in hearing research in a consistent and productive manner. Inspired by relevant debate within the field of psychology, and taking into account the World Health Organizations International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health framework, the attendees at the workshop reached a consensus on the following definition: "In hearing science, ecological validity refers to the degree to which research findings reflect real-life hearing-related function, activity, or participation." Four broad purposes for striving for greater ecological validity in hearing research were determined: A (Understanding) better understanding the role of hearing in everyday life; B (Development) supporting the development of improved procedures and interventions; C (Assessment) facilitating improved methods for assessing and predicting ability to accomplish real-world tasks; and D (Integration and Individualization) enabling more integrated and individualized care. Discussions considered the effects of variables and phenomena commonly present in hearing-related research on the level of ecological validity of outcomes, supported by examples from a few selected outcome domains and for different types of studies. Illustrated with examples, potential strategies were offered for promoting a high level of ecological validity in a study and for how to evaluate the level of ecological validity of a study. Areas in particular that could benefit from more research to advance ecological validity in hearing science include: (1) understanding the processes of hearing and communication in everyday listening situations, and specifically the factors that make listening difficult in everyday situations; (2) developing new test paradigms that include more than one person (e.g., to encompass the interactive nature of everyday communication) and that are integrative of other factors that interact with hearing in real-life function; (3) integrating new and emerging technologies (e.g., virtual reality) with established test methods; and (4) identifying the key variables and phenomena affecting the level of ecological validity to develop verifiable ways to increase ecological validity and derive a set of benchmarks to strive for.
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- Leijon, Arne, et al.
(author)
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Bayesian analysis of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data collected in adults before and after hearing rehabilitation
- 2023
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In: Frontiers in Digital Health. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2673-253X. ; 5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents a new Bayesian method for analyzing Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data and applies this method in a re-analysis of data from a previous EMA study. The analysis method has been implemented as a freely available Python package EmaCalc, RRID:SCR 022943. The analysis model can use EMA input data including nominal categories in one or more situation dimensions, and ordinal ratings of several perceptual attributes. The analysis uses a variant of ordinal regression to estimate the statistical relation between these variables. The Bayesian method has no requirements related to the number of participants or the number of assessments by each participant. Instead, the method automatically includes measures of the statistical credibility of all analysis results, for the given amount of data. For the previously collected EMA data, the analysis results demonstrate how the new tool can handle heavily skewed, scarce, and clustered data that were collected on ordinal scales, and present results on interval scales. The new method revealed results for the population mean that were similar to those obtained in the previous analysis by an advanced regression model. The Bayesian approach automatically estimated the inter-individual variability in the population, based on the study sample, and could show some statistically credible intervention results also for an unseen random individual in the population. Such results may be interesting, for example, if the EMA methodology is used by a hearing-aid manufacturer in a study to predict the success of a new signal-processing method among future potential customers.
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- Witte, Erik, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Test-retest reliability of the urban outdoor situated phoneme (SiP) test
- 2023
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In: International Journal of Audiology. - : Routledge. - 1499-2027 .- 1708-8186.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To introduce the urban outdoor version of the Situated Phoneme (SiP) test and investigate its test-retest reliability.DESIGN: Phonemic discrimination scores in matched-spectrum real-world (MSRW) maskers from an urban outdoor environment were measured using a three-alternative forced choice test paradigm at different phoneme-to-noise ratios (PNR). Each measurement was repeated twice. Test-retest scores for the full 84-trial SiP-test, as well as for four types of contrasting phonemes, were analysed and compared to critical difference scores based on binomial confidence intervals.STUDY SAMPLE: Seventy-two adult native speakers of Swedish (26-83 years) with symmetric hearing threshold levels ranging from normal hearing to severe sensorineural hearing loss.RESULTS: Test-retest scores did not differ significantly for the whole test, or for the subtests analysed. A lower amount of test-retest score difference than expected exceeded the bounds of the corresponding critical difference intervals.CONCLUSIONS: The urban outdoor SiP-test has high test-retest reliability. This information can help audiologists to interpret test scores attained with the urban outdoor SiP-test.
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- Witte, Erik, 1979-
(author)
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The development of the Situated Phoneme (SiP) test : A Swedish test of phonemic discrimination in noise for adultpeople with hearing loss
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the current thesis, a Swedish phoneme-level speech-audiometric test in natural background noise was developed. The test is called the Situated Phoneme (SiP) test. In the first study, different types of word metrics thought to influence lexical access were developed and calculated for more than 800 000 phonetically transcribed Swedish words, which were then assembled in a database called the AFC-list. In the second study, groups of monosyllabic AFC-list words with minimal phonemic contrast were selected as linguistic stimuli for the SiP-test, using a method by which the influence of word frequency, neighborhood density, phonotactic probability and orthographic transparency was controlled. All test words were recorded to sound files, of which the accuracy was validated in a listening experiment with 28 normal-hearing adult native speakers of Swedish. In the third study, a method was developed by which realistic masker sounds, spectrally matched to each set of test phonemes in the SiP-test material, were generated for the SiP-test based on a database of urban outdoor sound events. In the fourth study, the validity of six statistical methods for significance testing of observed score differences applicable to the SiP-test were investigated. Analyses were based both on computer simulated test sessions and on SiP-test sessions with human participants. In the latter, the SiP-test speech material was presented against the urban outdoor masker sounds at different difficulty levels to 74 people with normal hearing to severe hearing loss in a listening experiment using a multiple-alternative forced choice paradigm. Based on the results, a computational prediction model for the SiP test was developed, by which the underlying success probability of specific SiP-test trials could be estimated. In turn, this enabled the use of significance-test methods based on the Poisson’s binomial distribution, resulting in improved significance-test validity. In addition, the human SiP-test results were analyzed in terms of test-retest reliability, learning effects, content-, construct- and criterion validity within the remains of the thesis.
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