Dataset Information

The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ).

ABSTRACT: The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) is designed to measure a range of hearing disabilities across several domains. Particular attention is given to hearing speech in a variety of competing contexts, and to the directional, distance and movement components of spatial hearing. In addition, the abilities both to segregate sounds and to attend to simultaneous speech streams are assessed, reflecting the reality of hearing in the everyday world. Qualities of hearing experience include ease of listening, and the naturalness, clarity and identifiability of different speakers, different musical pieces and instruments, and different everyday sounds. Application of the SSQ to 153 new clinic clients prior to hearing aid fitting showed that the greatest difficulty was experienced with simultaneous speech streams, ease of listening, listening in groups and in noise, and judging distance and movement. SSQ ratings were compared with an independent measure of handicap. After differences in hearing level were controlled for, it was found that identification, attention and effort problems, as well as spatial hearing problems, feature prominently in the disability handicap relationship,. along with certain features of speech hearing. The results implicate aspects of temporal and spatial dynamics of hearing disability in the experience of handicap. The SSQ shows promise as an instrument for evaluating interventions of various kinds, particularly (but not exclusively) those that implicate binaural function.

SUBMITTER: Gatehouse S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5593096 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ).

Gatehouse Stuart S Noble William W

International journal of audiology 20040201 2

The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) is designed to measure a range of hearing disabilities across several domains. Particular attention is given to hearing speech in a variety of competing contexts, and to the directional, distance and movement components of spatial hearing. In addition, the abilities both to segregate sounds and to attend to simultaneous speech streams are assessed, reflecting the reality of hearing in the everyday world. Qualities of hearing experience inc ...[more]

PMID: 15035561

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Project description:Listeners vary in their ability to understand speech in noisy environments. Hearing sensitivity, as measured by pure-tone audiometry, can only partly explain these results, and cognition has emerged as another key concept. Although cognition relates to speech perception, the exact nature of the relationship remains to be fully understood. This study investigates how different aspects of cognition, particularly working memory and attention, relate to speech intelligibility for various tests. Perceptual accuracy of speech perception represents just one aspect of functioning in a listening environment. Activity and participation limits imposed by hearing loss, in addition to the demands of a listening environment, are also important and may be better captured by self-report questionnaires. Understanding how speech perception relates to self-reported aspects of listening forms the second focus of the study. Forty-four listeners aged between 50 and 74 years with mild sensorineural hearing loss were tested on speech perception tests differing in complexity from low (phoneme discrimination in quiet), to medium (digit triplet perception in speech-shaped noise) to high (sentence perception in modulated noise); cognitive tests of attention, memory, and non-verbal intelligence quotient; and self-report questionnaires of general health-related and hearing-specific quality of life. Hearing sensitivity and cognition related to intelligibility differently depending on the speech test: neither was important for phoneme discrimination, hearing sensitivity alone was important for digit triplet perception, and hearing and cognition together played a role in sentence perception. Self-reported aspects of auditory functioning were correlated with speech intelligibility to different degrees, with digit triplets in noise showing the richest pattern. The results suggest that intelligibility tests can vary in their auditory and cognitive demands and their sensitivity to the challenges that auditory environments pose on functioning.

Project description:ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of bilateral implantation for bone-anchored hearing system (BAHS) users in terms of spatial resolution abilities and auditory memory for speech.DesignThis is a prospective, single-center, comparative, single-blinded study where the listeners served as their own control. Twenty-four experienced bone-anchored users with a bilateral conductive or mixed hearing loss participated in the study. After fitting the listeners unilaterally and bilaterally with BAHS sound processor(s) (Ponto 3 SuperPower), spatial resolution was estimated by measuring the minimum audible angle (MAA) to achieve an 80% correct response via a two-alternative-forced choice task (right-left discrimination of noise bursts) in two conditions: both sound processors active (bilateral condition) and only one sound processor active (unilateral condition). In addition, a memory recall test, the Sentence-final Word Identification and Recall (SWIR) test was performed with five lists of seven sentences for each of the two conditions (unilateral and bilateral). Self-reported performance in everyday life with the listener's own sound processors was also evaluated via a questionnaire (the abbreviated version of the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing scale).ResultsThe MAA to discriminate noise bursts improved significantly from 75.04° in the unilateral condition to 3.61° in the bilateral condition ( p < 0.0001). The average improvement in performance was 54.28°. The SWIR test results showed that the listeners could recall, on average, 55.03% of the last words in a list of seven sentences in the unilateral condition and 57.23% in the bilateral condition. While the main effect of condition was not significant, there was a significant interaction between condition and repetition (list), revealing a significantly higher recall performance in the bilateral condition than in the unilateral condition for the second repetition/list out of five (10.2% difference; p = 0.022). Self-reported performance with bilateral BAHS obtained via the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing scale questionnaire was, on average, 4.4 for speech, 3.7 for spatial, and 5.1 for qualities of hearing. There was no correlation between self-reported performance in everyday life and bilateral performance in the MAA test, while significant correlations were obtained between self-reported performance and recall performance in the SWIR test.ConclusionsThese results showed a large benefit in spatial resolution for users with symmetric BC thresholds when being fitted with two BAHS, although their self-reported performance with bilateral BAHS in everyday life was rather low. In addition, there was no overall benefit of bilateral fitting on memory for speech, despite observing a benefit in one out of five repetitions of the SWIR test. Performance in the SWIR test was correlated with the users' self-reported performance in everyday life, such that users with higher recall ability reported to achieve better performance in real life. These findings highlight the advantages of bilateral fitting on spatial resolution, although bilaterally fitted BAHS users continue to experience some difficulties in their daily lives, especially when locating sounds, judging distance and movement. More research is needed to support a higher penetration of bilateral BAHS treatment for bilateral conductive and mixed hearing losses.

Project description:Purpose The classroom acoustic standard ANSI/ASA S12.60-2010/Part 1 requires a reverberation time (RT) for children with hearing impairment of 0.3 s, shorter than its requirement of 0.6 s for children with typical hearing. While preliminary data from conference proceedings support this new RT requirement of 0.3 s, peer-reviewed data that support 0.3-s RT are not available on those wearing hearing aids. To help address this, this article compares speech perception performance by children with hearing aids in RTs, including those specified in the ANSI/ASA-2010 standard. A related clinical issue is whether assessments of speech perception conducted in near-anechoic sound booths, which may overestimate performance in reverberant classrooms, may now provide a more reliable estimate when the child is in a classroom with a short RT of 0.3 s. To address this, this study compared speech perception by children with hearing aids in a sound booth to listening in 0.3-s RT. Method Participants listened in classroom RTs of 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 s and in a near-anechoic sound booth. All conditions also included a 21-dB range of speech-to-noise ratios (SNRs) to further represent classroom listening environments. Performance measures using the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise (BKB-SIN) test were 50% correct word recognition across these acoustic conditions, with supplementary analyses of percent correct. Results Each reduction in RT from 0.9 to 0.6 to 0.3 s significantly benefited the children's perception of speech. Scores obtained in a sound booth were significantly better than those measured in 0.3-s RT. Conclusion These results support the acoustic standard of 0.3-s RT for children with hearing impairment in learning spaces ? 283 m3, as specified in ANSI/ASA S12.60-2010/Part 1. Additionally, speech perception testing in a sound booth did not predict accurately listening ability in a classroom with 0.3-s RT. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11356487.

Dataset Information

The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ).

Publications

The Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ).

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