Poster Session #2: UC South Ballroom
Presentation Type
Poster - Campus Access Only
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Al Yonovitz
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Soft sounds create an in-depth experience of a person’s everyday environment; however, soft sounds are not currently being tested in a hearing test by audiologists. Elder adults are at a disadvantage hearing soft sounds compared to their younger counterparts even without a hearing loss. The purpose of the proposed study is to design a test of audition that will assess the audibility of soft sounds that are part of the acoustic milieu. Findings from this study may have a clinical application to identify everyday soft sounds relating to adjusting and writing hearing aid prescriptions. Currently, auditory threshold expectations are defined differently for children and adults. A child is expected to have hearing at or below 15 dB HL for all frequencies tested to be considered normal hearing, while an adult should be able to detect sounds at or below 25 dB HL. Soft sounds are typically below 25 dB HL. Hearing at 15 dB HL is not only important for language acquisition and communication, but for overall quality of life as well. Soundscapes are a relatively new technology that are used in the field of architectural acoustics. They are sound exemplars that are constructed with high quality sound recordings overlaid in a specific fashion to create a virtual auditory experience. Identification responses will be obtained to ten Soundscape themes with embedded target sounds. Six embedded sounds will be presented at low levels for each of the ten ambient (Soundscape) themes. There are two forms of the test each with three embedded sounds for each Soundscape. Subject responses will allow the adjustment of hearing aids to improve the audibility of soft sounds. It is expected that hearing these embedded soft sounds within the Soundscape may help alleviate some of these hearing problems and in turn increase their quality of life.
Category
Health and Medical Science
Soundscape Stimuli and the Soft Sound Test
UC South Ballroom
Soft sounds create an in-depth experience of a person’s everyday environment; however, soft sounds are not currently being tested in a hearing test by audiologists. Elder adults are at a disadvantage hearing soft sounds compared to their younger counterparts even without a hearing loss. The purpose of the proposed study is to design a test of audition that will assess the audibility of soft sounds that are part of the acoustic milieu. Findings from this study may have a clinical application to identify everyday soft sounds relating to adjusting and writing hearing aid prescriptions. Currently, auditory threshold expectations are defined differently for children and adults. A child is expected to have hearing at or below 15 dB HL for all frequencies tested to be considered normal hearing, while an adult should be able to detect sounds at or below 25 dB HL. Soft sounds are typically below 25 dB HL. Hearing at 15 dB HL is not only important for language acquisition and communication, but for overall quality of life as well. Soundscapes are a relatively new technology that are used in the field of architectural acoustics. They are sound exemplars that are constructed with high quality sound recordings overlaid in a specific fashion to create a virtual auditory experience. Identification responses will be obtained to ten Soundscape themes with embedded target sounds. Six embedded sounds will be presented at low levels for each of the ten ambient (Soundscape) themes. There are two forms of the test each with three embedded sounds for each Soundscape. Subject responses will allow the adjustment of hearing aids to improve the audibility of soft sounds. It is expected that hearing these embedded soft sounds within the Soundscape may help alleviate some of these hearing problems and in turn increase their quality of life.