Hearing loss severity drives listeners toward alternative acoustic cues for arousal

Evidence

Importantly, across the aided and unaided conditions, hearing loss modulated the extent to which listeners used alternative cues to interpret arousal (i.e., other cues than intensity): hearing-impaired listeners with more severe degrees of hearing loss made more use of articulation rate and mean F0. In other words, gradually acquired hearing loss causes listeners to rely on different cues for their interpretation of arousal, but restoring their hearing by means of a hearing aid will also change which cues they rely on for their interpretation of arousal. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1377

The study showed that the hearing aid restored affect perception in the sense that the use of the hearing aid makes rating patterns of hearing aid users with severe hearing loss more similar to those with less severe hearing loss. Secondly, the study showed that the use of a hearing aid changed the pattern of acoustic parameters that were used for arousal perception. Importantly, across the aided and unaided conditions, hearing loss modulated the extent to which listeners used alternative cues to interpret arousal (i.e., other cues than intensity): hearing-impaired listeners with more severe degrees of hearing loss made more use of articulation rate and mean F0. In other words, gradually acquired hearing loss causes listeners to rely on different cues for their interpretation of arousal, but restoring their hearing by means of a hearing aid will also change which cues they rely on for their interpretation of arousal. Older adults may only start using additional cues (such as articulation rate) for their interpretation of arousal with more severe hearing loss. In a related study (Schmidt et al., submitted), older adults with mild hearing loss were tested who were not wearing hearing aids. For this group with mild hearing impairment, intensity emerged as the only significant predictor of arousal. Note, however, that this reliance on multiple cues rather than on a single cue does not hold for valence, where F0 is the only prosodic cue listeners irrespective of their hearing sensitivity are using. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1379

Importantly, across the aided and unaided conditions, hearing loss modulated the extent to which listeners used alternative cues to interpret arousal (i.e., other cues than intensity): hearing-impaired listeners with more severe degrees of hearing loss made more use of articulation rate and mean F0. In other words, gradually acquired hearing loss causes listeners to rely on different cues for their interpretation of arousal, but restoring their hearing by means of a hearing aid will also change which cues they rely on for their interpretation of arousal. Older adults may only start using additional cues (such as articulation rate) for their interpretation of arousal with more severe hearing loss. In a related study (Schmidt et al., submitted), older adults with mild hearing loss were tested who were not wearing hearing aids. For this group with mild hearing impairment, intensity emerged as the only significant predictor of arousal. Note, however, that this reliance on multiple cues rather than on a single cue does not hold for valence, where F0 is the only prosodic cue listeners irrespective of their hearing sensitivity are using. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1379

The study showed that the hearing aid restored affect perception in the sense that the use of the hearing aid makes rating patterns of hearing aid users with severe hearing loss more similar to those with less severe hearing loss. Secondly, the study showed that the use of a hearing aid changed the pattern of acoustic parameters that were used for arousal perception. Importantly, across the aided and unaided conditions, hearing loss modulated the extent to which listeners used alternative cues to interpret arousal (i.e., other cues than intensity): hearing-impaired listeners with more severe degrees of hearing loss made more use of articulation rate and mean F0. In other words, gradually acquired hearing loss causes listeners to rely on different cues for their interpretation of arousal, but restoring their hearing by means of a hearing aid will also change which cues they rely on for their interpretation of arousal. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1377

Among the hearing-aid users, those with poorer hearing used additional prosodic cues (i.e., tempo and pitch) for their arousal ratings, compared to those with relatively good hearing. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1348

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the trade-off theme in the noise/silence books: when one perceptual channel degrades, listeners recruit alternative ones rather than simply losing information. — connects to: Hearing loss widens critical bands and alters music perception itself — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 1897; Hearing loss makes listener opinions unreliable no matter how experienced; Increasing sensorineural hearing loss shifts tone perception from fine structure to envelope cues — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3380 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the distinction between the prosodic cues used for arousal (multi-cue, hearing-loss dependent) versus valence (F0 only, hearing independent).
• corroborated: 6 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1377; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1379; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1348

Broader Connections

• Even modest hearing loss increases variability in sound quality judgments #complicates (0.72)