Hearing assessment of non-verbal sounds: improving quality of life for people with hearing impairment

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K17468
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Special needs education
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: TABARU KEI 茨城大学, 教育学部, 講師 (70735753)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 聴覚障害 / 聴能評価 / 環境音認知 / オーディオロジー / 脳科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to clarify factors influencing the identification of environmental sounds in people with hearing impairment. Experimental researches were conducted on adults with hearing impairment. Results suggest that there are roughly four factors to enhance the identification of environmental sounds : a) spectro-temporal pattern of sounds, b) pure tone threshold of each person, c) contextual information of sounds, d) amount of hearing experience. These factors should be considered in assessment of hearing abilities for environmental sounds identification.

Free Research Field

オーディオロジー，特別支援教育

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまでに聴覚障害者の環境音認知をテーマに扱った研究が少ないために，その実態が十分に明らかになっていないという課題が挙げられた。本研究によって，聴覚障害者の環境音認知に影響を及ぼす要因を中心とした実態が明らかになったことは，聴覚障害者の非言語音認知を解明する上でも学術的意義が高いと言える。また，聴覚障害児へ教育を行う際の根拠として活用できるという点で社会的意義も高いと言える。