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Journal of Audiology & Otology Jan 2024The discrepancies between the objective and subjective measurements used to select and fit hearing aids indirectly impact the perceived benefit and perception in the...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The discrepancies between the objective and subjective measurements used to select and fit hearing aids indirectly impact the perceived benefit and perception in the presence of noise. This study aimed to bridge the gap between objective and subjective measurements in hearing aid fitting by adapting and validating the "Perceptual Performance Test (PPT)" in Malayalam. Subjects and.
METHODS
Standardized Malayalam-language sentences were used to adapt PPT and administer it to 65 native Malayalam speakers (30 normal and 35 hearing impaired). Performance and perception speech recognition thresholds in noise (SRTN) and Performance-Perceptual Discrepancy (PPDIS) were evaluated at various noise levels along with Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) or Adults (HHIA).
RESULTS
Both perceptual and performance SRTNs were better among normal-hearing individuals than in the hearing-impaired group. Moreover, the participants with hearing impairment were found to have a significant effect of noise level on both the measures, which was otherwise not seen among normal-hearing individuals. The normative criteria for PPDIS were established to categorize the individuals as under-, over-, or accurate estimators. The performance and perception outcomes varied significantly between groups (normal hearing and hearing impaired) and across noise levels. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between perceptual and performance SRTNs with emotional and social subscales and total HHIE/A scores. Additionally, a negative association was noted between PPDIS values and HHIE/A scores.
CONCLUSIONS
The adapted test is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating the benefit of hearing aids. PPDIS can provide crucial information to audiologists regarding an individual's judgement about their hearing ability, with an explanation for the discrepancy between objective and subjective reports of hearing impairments.
PubMed: 37953516
DOI: 10.7874/jao.2023.00073 -
Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism Apr 2018To determine whether hand left/right judgements, tactile acuity, and body perception are impaired in people with hand OA. To examine the relationships between left right...
OBJECTIVES
To determine whether hand left/right judgements, tactile acuity, and body perception are impaired in people with hand OA. To examine the relationships between left right judgements, tactile acuity and hand pain. To explore the relationships between sensorimotor measures (left/right judgements and tactile acuity) and measures of hand function in people with hand OA.
METHODS
Twenty patients with symptomatic hand OA and 19 healthy pain-free controls undertook a hand left/right judgment task, a control left/right judgement task, two-point discrimination (TPD) threshold testing (assessing tactile acuity), a neglect-like symptoms questionnaire (assessing body perception) and several established measures of hand function.
RESULTS
Neglect-like symptoms were experienced more frequently in the hand OA group (P < 0.05). People with hand OA were slower (P < 0.05) and less accurate (P < 0.05) in the hand left/right judgement task when compared to healthy controls, with no significant difference in the control task. Significant associations were found between hand left/right judgement reaction time and pain intensity (P < 0.05) and accuracy and pain intensity (P < 0.05). TPD was not different between groups, and no correlation was found between TPD and left/right judgement performance. No association was found between left/right judgement performance and measures of hand function (all P > 0.05). However, TPD (tactile acuity) was related to several measures of hand function (all P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
People with hand OA had more frequent neglect-like symptoms and were slower and less accurate compared to healthy controls at hand left/right judgments, which was indicative of disrupted working body schema. Future studies may wish to examine whether interventions targeting sensorimotor dysfunction are effective at reducing pain and improving hand function and dexterity in people with hand OA.
Topics: Aged; Case-Control Studies; Discrimination, Psychological; Female; Hand; Humans; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Osteoarthritis; Pain Measurement; Psychomotor Performance; Touch Perception
PubMed: 29153332
DOI: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2017.09.008 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Dec 2021Students consistently report multitasking (e.g., checking social media, texting, watching Netflix) when studying on their own (e.g., Junco & Cotton, Computers &...
Students consistently report multitasking (e.g., checking social media, texting, watching Netflix) when studying on their own (e.g., Junco & Cotton, Computers & Education, 59[2], 505-514, 2012). Multitasking impairs explicit learning (e.g., Carrier, Rosen, Cheever, & Lim, Developmental Review, 35, 64-78, 2015), but the impact of multitasking on metacognitive monitoring and control is less clear. Metacognition may compete with ongoing cognitive processing for mental resources (e.g., Nelson & Narens, The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 26, 125-141, 1990) and would be impaired by dividing attention; alternatively, metacognition may require little attention (e.g., Boekaerts & Niemivirta, Handbook of Self-Regulation [pp. 417-450], 2000) and would not be impacted by dividing attention. Across three experiments, we assessed the influence of divided attention on metacognition. Participants made item-by-item judgements of learning (JOLs) after studying word pairs under full or divided attention (Experiment 1) and made restudy choices (Experiments 2 & 3). Dividing attention had little impact on the resolution of learners' metacognitive monitoring, but significantly impaired calibration of monitoring, the relationship between monitoring and control, and the efficacy of metacognitive control. The data suggest that monitoring may require few cognitive resources, but controlling one's learning (e.g., planning what to restudy and implementing a plan) may demand significant mental resources.
Topics: Attention; Humans; Judgment; Learning; Metacognition; Students
PubMed: 34131889
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-01950-9 -
Experimental Gerontology Dec 2018Awareness of physical ability may impact fall risk during everyday tasks. Therefore, we investigated perceived reach (PR; estimation of furthest reach distance), maximal...
Inaccurate judgement of reach is associated with slow reaction time, poor balance, impaired executive function and predicts prospective falls in older people with cognitive impairment.
BACKGROUND
Awareness of physical ability may impact fall risk during everyday tasks. Therefore, we investigated perceived reach (PR; estimation of furthest reach distance), maximal reach (MR) and reach judgement error (RJE), and their relationships with neuropsychological and physical performance, and falls in older people with cognitive impairment (CI).
METHODS
Prospective cohort study of 110 (mean age = 82 ± 7 years; female = 52%) older people with mild-moderate CI (MMSE 11-23; Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) < 83). PR, MR and detailed neuropsychological and physical assessments were assessed at baseline. Participants were divided into tertiles based on their absolute RJE. Falls were recorded prospectively over 12 months with the assistance of carers.
RESULTS
The populations mean MR was 79 ± 10 cm and PR was 75 ± 13 cm, indicating participants tended to underestimate their reach ability. The large RJE tertile performed significantly poorer in measures of global cognition (ACE-R; OR 0.54 95%CI 0.31-0.95) and executive function (Trail Making Test B; OR 1.84 95%CI 1.00-3.36) and had increased concern about falling (Falls Efficacy Scale-International; OR 2.01 95% CI 1.06-3.79) compared to the minimal RJE tertile. The moderate and large RJE tertile groups had significantly slower hand reaction time and larger postural sway on foam compared to the minimal RJE tertile. Each 1% increase in RJE increased the risk of falls by 2% (RR 1.02 95%CI 1.01-1.03). This relationship withstood adjustment for other fall risk factors (sway on foam, Trail Making Test B and ACE-R).
CONCLUSIONS
Inaccurate reach judgement predicts future falls and is associated with poorer global cognitive performance and executive function, increased concern about falling, slower reaction time and poorer balance. Our results offer insight into the disparity between actual and perceived physical capabilities in people with CI, and how this impacts their risk of falling.
Topics: Accidental Falls; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cognitive Dysfunction; Executive Function; Female; Humans; Judgment; Logistic Models; Male; Postural Balance; Prospective Studies; Reaction Time; Risk Factors; Trail Making Test
PubMed: 30389580
DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.10.020 -
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Nov 2018Patients with schizophrenia present clinically with difficulties in manipulating contradictory information in the form of loose associations, surface contradictions and...
INTRODUCTION
Patients with schizophrenia present clinically with difficulties in manipulating contradictory information in the form of loose associations, surface contradictions and delusional beliefs. It is to date unclear whether patients can detect and process information that contradicts their beliefs and prior knowledge and whether this capacity is related to their symptoms and the nature of contradictory stimuli (e.g., personally significant information, emotional information).
METHODS
We probed contradiction processing in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls using sentence verification tasks that involve self-referential judgements (Experiment 1) and general knowledge (Experiment 2), while manipulating the emotional content of the stimuli.
RESULTS
We found no differences between patients and controls either on reaction time (Experiment 1 & 2) or accuracy measures (Experiment 1).
CONCLUSIONS
Our results show no general impairment in contradiction processing in schizophrenia. Rather, failures to detect and correct contradictions in symptoms such as formal though disorder or delusions could arise through a complex interplay between executive dysfunctions, stress and the emotional content of the information.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Delusions; Emotions; Female; Humans; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Photic Stimulation; Reaction Time; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology
PubMed: 30296915
DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2018.1530103 -
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and... Nov 2015Executive and behavioural changes are well-recognised in classical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), indicating a subclinical behavioural-variant frontotemporal...
OBJECTIVES
Executive and behavioural changes are well-recognised in classical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), indicating a subclinical behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) in some patients. Social cognitive deficits in ALS have been recently described and an impairment was identified on a simple Theory of Mind (ToM) test, which assesses the judgement of the preference of another through direction of eye gaze. The present study further delineated this deficit, by distinguishing between Affective and Cognitive subcomponents, and determining the relationship to behavioural change, levels of empathy and self-awareness.
METHODS
The Cognitive-Affective Judgement of Preference Test was administered to 33 patients with ALS and 26 controls. Furthermore, a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and detailed behavioural assessment, with measures of empathy and awareness, were included.
RESULTS
Patients with ALS showed a significant impairment in Affective ToM only when compared with healthy controls, with a deficit in 36% of patients; 12% showed an isolated Affective ToM deficit while 24% showed more generic ToM dysfunction. A Cognitive ToM deficit was found in 27% of patients, with 3% showing an isolated Cognitive ToM deficit. The patients with ALS showed reduced empathy (Fantasy scale) and increased behavioural dysfunction with high levels of apathy. In addition, patients with either an Affective and/or Cognitive ToM deficit exhibited poor self-awareness of their performance and abnormalities on verbal fluency, while those with an Affective ToM deficit also displayed higher levels of apathy and a naming deficit.
CONCLUSIONS
Dysfunctional ToM is a prominent feature of the cognitive profile of ALS. This specific difficulty in identifying and distinguishing the feelings and thoughts of another from a self-perspective may underpin the social behavioural abnormalities present in some patients with ALS, manifest as apathy and loss of awareness.
Topics: Adult; Affect; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Awareness; Cognition; Empathy; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Self Concept; Theory of Mind; Treatment Outcome
PubMed: 25476003
DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2014-309290 -
Experimental Brain Research Mar 2022Temporal Binding Window (TBW) represents a reliable index of efficient multisensory integration process, which allows individuals to infer which sensory inputs from...
Temporal Binding Window (TBW) represents a reliable index of efficient multisensory integration process, which allows individuals to infer which sensory inputs from different modalities pertain to the same event. TBW alterations have been reported in some neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders and seem to negatively affects cognition and behavior. So far, it is still unknown whether deficits of multisensory integration, as indexed by an abnormal TBW, are present even in Multiple Sclerosis. We addressed this issue by testing 25 participants affected by relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) and 30 age-matched healthy controls. Participants completed a simultaneity judgment task (SJ2) to assess the audio-visual TBW; two unimodal SJ2 versions were used as control tasks. Individuals with RRMS showed an enlarged audio-visual TBW (width range = from - 166 ms to + 198 ms), as compared to healthy controls (width range = - 177/ + 66 ms), thus showing an increased tendency to integrate temporally asynchronous visual and auditory stimuli. Instead, simultaneity perception of unimodal (visual or auditory) events overall did not differ from that of controls. These results provide first evidence of a selective deficit of multisensory integration in individuals affected by RRMS, besides the well-known motor and cognitive impairments. The reduced multisensory temporal acuity is likely caused by a disruption of the neural interplay between different sensory systems caused by multiple sclerosis.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Auditory Perception; Humans; Judgment; Multiple Sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting; Photic Stimulation; Visual Perception
PubMed: 35094114
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-022-06310-0 -
British Journal of Psychology (London,... Aug 2018A growing body of evidence suggests that social exclusion impairs people's capacity for active deliberation and logical reasoning. Building on this finding and on the...
A growing body of evidence suggests that social exclusion impairs people's capacity for active deliberation and logical reasoning. Building on this finding and on the postulate from the dual-process theory that analytical thinking is essential in order to make good judgements and decisions, we hypothesized that social exclusion will alter judgement and choice behaviour. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments in which social exclusion was manipulated using the Cyberball paradigm, an online ball-tossing game in which participants either received the ball a fair number of times or were excluded by the other two players. We focused on a range of tasks designed to be sensitive to participants' ability to engage in analytical thinking and careful deliberation, including the cognitive reflection test (Experiment 1) and a set of anchoring, intertemporal preference, disjunction, and confidence tasks (experiments 2 and 3). Our results unanimously failed to support the hypothesis that social exclusion influences people's judgements and decision-making. We discuss the implications of our findings for social exclusion theory.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Choice Behavior; Cognition; Decision Making; Female; Humans; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Psychological; Reproducibility of Results; Social Alienation; Social Isolation; Young Adult
PubMed: 29512152
DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12294 -
Trends in Hearing Feb 2016The speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) in an environment plays a vital role in speech communication for both normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. While...
The speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) in an environment plays a vital role in speech communication for both normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. While hearing-assistance devices attempt to deliver as favorable an SNR as possible, there may be discrepancies between noticeable and meaningful improvements in SNR. Furthermore, it is not clear how much of an SNR improvement is necessary to induce intervention-seeking behavior. Here, we report on a series of experiments examining the just-meaningful difference (JMD) in SNR. All experiments used sentences in same-spectrum noise, with two intervals on each trial mimicking examples of pre- and post-benefit situations. Different groups of NH and HI adults were asked (a) to rate how much better or worse the change in SNR was in a number of paired examples, (b) if they would swap the worse for the better SNR (e.g., their current device for another), or (c) if they would be willing to go to the clinic for the given increase in SNR. The mean SNR JMD based on better or worse ratings (one arbitrary unit) was similar to the just-noticeable difference, approximately 3 dB. However, the mean SNR JMD for the more clinically relevant tasks-willingness (at least 50% of the time) to swap devices or attend the clinic for a change in SNR--was 6 to 8 dB regardless of hearing ability. This SNR JMD of the order of 6 dB provides a new benchmark, indicating the SNR improvement necessary to immediately motivate participants to seek intervention.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Acoustics; Adult; Audiometry, Pure-Tone; Audiometry, Speech; Auditory Threshold; Case-Control Studies; Comprehension; Female; Hearing Aids; Hearing Disorders; Humans; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Noise; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Perceptual Masking; Persons With Hearing Impairments; Signal Detection, Psychological; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Signal-To-Noise Ratio; Speech Intelligibility; Speech Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 26834121
DOI: 10.1177/2331216515626570 -
Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology :... Feb 2019Inner speech, or the ability to talk to yourself in your head, is one of the most ubiquitous phenomena of everyday experience. Recent years have seen growing interest in...
OBJECTIVE
Inner speech, or the ability to talk to yourself in your head, is one of the most ubiquitous phenomena of everyday experience. Recent years have seen growing interest in the role and function of inner speech in various typical and cognitively impaired populations. Although people vary in their ability to produce inner speech, there is currently no test battery which can be used to evaluate people's inner speech ability. Here we developed a test battery which can be used to evaluate individual differences in the ability to access the auditory word form internally.
METHODS
We developed and standardized five tests: rhyme judgment of pictures and written words, homophone judgment of written words and non-words, and judgment of lexical stress of written words. The tasks were administered to adult healthy native British English speakers (age range 20-72, n = 28-97, varies between tests).
RESULTS
In all tests, some items were excluded based on low success rates among participants, or documented regional variability in accent. Level of education, but not age, correlated with task performance for some of the tasks, and there were no gender difference in performance.
CONCLUSION
A process of standardization resulted in a battery of tests which can be used to assess natural variability of inner speech abilities among English speaking adults.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Female; Humans; Individuality; Judgment; Language; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Sex Factors; Speech; Young Adult
PubMed: 29522066
DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acy018