3 research outputs found
The development of a Self-Rated ICF-based questionnaire (HEAR-COMMAND Tool) to evaluate Hearing, Communication, and Conversation disability: Multinational experts’ and patients’ perspectives
ObjectiveAn instrument that facilitates the advancement of hearing healthcare delivery from a biomedical model to a biopsychosocial one that underpins the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health framework (ICF) brief and comprehensive Core Sets for Hearing Loss (CSHL) is currently unavailable. The objective is to describe the process of developing and validating a new questionnaire named the HEAR-COMMAND Tool created by transferring the ICF CSHL into a theory-supported, practically manageable concept.DesignA team from Germany, the USA, the Netherlands, and Egypt collaborated on development. The following ICF domains were considered; “Body Functions” (BF), “Activities and Participation” (AP), and “Environmental Factors” (EF). The development yielded English, German, and Arabic versions. A pilot validation study with a total of 109 respondents across three countries, Germany, Egypt, and the USA was conducted to revise the item terminology according to the feedback provided by the respondents.ResultsThe questionnaire included a total of 120 items. Ninety items were designed to collect information on the functioning and 30 items inquiring about demographic information, hearing status, and Personal Factors. Except for the “Body Structures” (BS) domain, all the categories of the brief ICF CSHL were covered (a total of 85% of the categories). Moreover, the items covered 44% of the comprehensive ICF CSHL categories including 73% of BF, 55% of AP, and 27% of EF domains. Overall, the terminology of 24 ICF-based items was revised based on the qualitative analysis of the respondents' feedback to further clarify the items that were found tod be unclear or misleading. The tool highlighted the broad connection of HL with bodily health and contextual factors.ConclusionsThe HEAR-COMMAND Tool was developed based on the ICF CSHL and from multinational experts' and patients' perspectives with the aim to improve the execution of audiological services, treatment, and rehabilitation for adult patients with HL. Additional validation of the tool is ongoing. The next step would be to pair the tool with BS categories since it was excluded from the tool and determine its effectiveness in guiding hearing health care practitioners to holistically classify categories influencing hearing, communication, and conversation disability
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The investigation of 3D space, frequency, and rate contributions to solve the cocktail-party problem using signal detection theory
The cocktail party effect describes the human ability to detect a specific sound of interest in a noisy environment. Scientists have evaluated different influential parameters affecting auditory stream segregation. Previous studies have focused on individual cues while the interaction between them appears to be poorly studied. This thesis investigates the interactions between the temporal and spatialcues, and the spectral and spatial cues in a cocktail party scenario. Two streams were presented at the same time from ±7.5◦ or ±45◦ or ±90◦ . One stream (the target) was to be attended, and the other stream (the masker) was to be ignored. The stimuli were frequency-modulated narrowband noise. The modulation-rates were randomly chosen between 0.7 and 3.3 Hz (prosodic fluctuations in natural speech) so that the interaction of modulation-rate difference and stream segregation could be examined. Transient gaps were embedded in both streams and the task was to report only the gaps in the target. If the subject could detect gaps in the target (not masker), the stream segregation was accurate. Performance was evaluated as a function of source separation using signal detection theory. The overall performance was significantly poorer at ±7.5◦ than at ±45◦ and ±90◦ . The task was evaluated as a function of the difference between the carrier frequency of target and masker that was chosen randomly. The results showed that the effect of the frequency difference on performance was significant at all the angles and it was significantly stronger at ±7.5◦ than at ±45◦ . he task was analyzed as a function of the modulation-rate difference between the streams and showed it did not play the role of a segregation cue at any angle. The reaction time at ±7.5◦ was significantly slower than that at ±45◦ and ±90◦ . In summary, consistent with previous work on stream segregation, spatial cues influenced performance. When they were not strong enough cues, making a decision took a longer time. Frequency was a stronger cue for stream segregation when spatial cues were less clear. Regardless of the location in space, no interaction between the rate and space was found