Acted speech masks true effects of hearing loss on affect perception

Evidence

To our knowledge, in older adults only the effect of mild hearing loss has been investigated so far. Findings concerning the link between individual hearing loss and affect perception have been inconsistent. Orbelo and colleagues (Orbelo et al. 2005 ) found no effect of hearing sensitivity on affect perception, while Rigo and Lieberman (Rigo and Lieberman 1989 ) found that low-frequency hearing loss (PTAlow (0.25, 0.5, 1 kHz) > 25 dB HL) impacted affect perception. Note that both these studies used acted speech. The lack of a global effect of hearing sensitivity on affect perception in these experiments could be due to the more prototypical prosodic expression of affect in acted compared to natural speech (Scherer 1986 ; Wilting et al. 2006 ). More extreme expressions of affect may be relatively easy to perceive, even for people with hearing loss (Grant 1987 ) thus obscuring a possible influence of hearing sensitivity on affect perception in natural communicative settings. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1355

The lack of a global effect of hearing sensitivity on affect perception in these experiments could be due to the more prototypical prosodic expression of affect in acted compared to natural speech (Scherer 1986 ; Wilting et al. 2006 ). More extreme expressions of affect may be relatively easy to perceive, even for people with hearing loss (Grant 1987 ) thus obscuring a possible influence of hearing sensitivity on affect perception in natural communicative settings. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1352

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what experimental designs would avoid the acted-speech confound? Naturalistic/ecological prosody paradigms.
• XREF: Echoes the general research-methods lesson that exaggerated/paradigmatic stimuli wash out real-world effect sizes — parallels design critique in behavioral studies.
• SEED: Angle: ‘acted vs natural speech’ as a methodological blind spot — how laboratory exaggeration hides real perceptual deficits in patient populations.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1355; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1352