Improving the Quality of Auditory Training by Making Tasks Meaningful

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Barcroft ◽  
Elizabeth Mauzé ◽  
Catherine Schroy ◽  
Nancy Tye-Murray ◽  
Mitchell Sommers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Original Version ◽  
Auditory Training ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Participant Engagement ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Formal Properties

Traditional auditory training (AT) typically includes activities that focus on the formal properties of sounds without requiring attention to meaning. After reviewing the psycholinguistic bases for requiring attention to meaning, the authors present a series of examples of how to modify purely form-oriented AT activities so that they become meaning oriented. For example, a purely form-oriented same–different task with /ba/–/pa/ or /ba/–/ba/ can be modified using minimal pairs such as /bear/–/pear/ or /bear/–/bear/ and by requiring listeners to identify appropriate picture pairs in order (i.e., pictures of a bear and then a pear, or of a bear and then another bear). The modified version requires attention to meaning, whereas the original version does not. The authors promote a nonhierarchical and interactive approach to AT in which activities at 3 linguistic levels (word, sentence, and discourse) are included from the beginning and throughout AT, but with activities that are carefully designed to be meaning oriented and in which comprehension is the central focus. In the Summary By Example section, the authors describe an AT program (I Hear What You Mean; Tye-Murray, Barcroft, & Sommers, in press) that was designed to be meaning oriented at the word, sentence, and discourse levels. Specific benefits of providing meaning-based AT, such as higher levels of participant engagement, are highlighted.

Effect of Computerized Auditory Training on Speech Perception of Adults With Hearing Impairment

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Pizarek ◽  
Valeriy Shafiro ◽  
Patricia McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
Auditory Training ◽  
Hearing Impairments ◽  
Communicative Disorders ◽  
And Training

Computerized auditory training (CAT) is a convenient, low-cost approach to improving communication of individuals with hearing loss or other communicative disorders. A number of CAT programs are being marketed to patients and audiologists. The present literature review is an examination of evidence for the effectiveness of CAT in improving speech perception in adults with hearing impairments. Six current CAT programs, used in 9 published studies, were reviewed. In all 9 studies, some benefit of CAT for speech perception was demonstrated. Although these results are encouraging, the overall quality of available evidence remains low, and many programs currently on the market have not yet been evaluated. Thus, caution is needed when selecting CAT programs for specific patients. It is hoped that future researchers will (a) examine a greater number of CAT programs using more rigorous experimental designs, (b) determine which program features and training regimens are most effective, and (c) indicate which patients may benefit from CAT the most.

The Impact of Between-Wave Engagement Strategies on Response to a Longitudinal Survey

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Cleary ◽  
Nigel Balmer
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Longitudinal Surveys ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Participant Engagement ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Design Attributes ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Better Than

Maintaining participant engagement in longitudinal surveys has been a key focus of survey research, and has implications for the quality of response and cost of administration. This paper presents new research measuring the impact of the design of between-wave keeping-in-touch mailings on response to the mailing and subsequent wave of a longitudinal survey. Three design attributes of the mailings were randomly implemented: the form of response request (whether respondents were asked to respond only if their address had changed, or in all cases to confirm or update their address); the newsletter included with the mailing (contrasting a newsletter with content tailored to respondent characteristics with a general newsletter and no newsletter); and the outgoing postage used (stamped or franked). The experiments were fielded on a new longitudinal study, the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Panel Survey (CSJPS), and took place between waves one and two. Fieldwork for both waves was conducted by Ipsos MORI face-to-face interviewers. Our main finding was that the tailored newsletter was associated with a significant increase in the wave-two response rate. However, in relation to response to the request, the tailored newsletter, or sending no newsletter at all, were equally effective at inducing response, and significantly better than the general newsletter. We also found that, in relation to the form of request, the ‘change of address’ request was as effective as the more costly ‘confirmation’ request. Findings are discussed with reference to the design of keeping-in-touch mailings for longitudinal surveys.

scholarly journals Systematic Review of Auditory Training in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1574-1593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanin Rayes ◽  
Ghada Al-Malky ◽  
Deborah Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
Auditory Training ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Speech Discrimination ◽  
Speech And Language Development ◽  
Published Research ◽  
Over Time

Objective The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate the published research in auditory training (AT) for pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients. This review investigates whether AT in children with CIs leads to improvements in speech and language development, cognition, and/or quality of life and whether improvements, if any, remain over time post AT intervention. Method A systematic search of 7 databases identified 96 review articles published up until January 2017, 9 of which met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and independently assessed for risk of bias and quality of study against a PICOS (participants, intervention, control, outcomes, and study) framework. Results All studies reported improvements in trained AT tasks, including speech discrimination/identification and working memory. Retention of improvements over time was found whenever it was assessed. Transfer of learning was measured in 4 of 6 studies, which assessed generalization. Quality of life was not assessed. Overall, evidence for the included studies was deemed to be of low quality. Conclusion Benefits of AT were illustrated through the improvement in trained tasks, and this was observed in all reviewed studies. Transfer of improvement to other domains and also retention of benefits post AT were evident when assessed, although rarely done. However, higher quality evidence to further examine outcomes of AT in pediatric CI recipients is needed.

Unhappy anniversary?

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Hanley ◽  
David Marsland
Keyword(s):  
Residential Care ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Ecological Framework ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
The People ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance and nature of relationships of trust in care settings. The paper addresses the central question of what is it about these kinds of relationships that is associated with harm and abuse? Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a discursive approach, based, implicitly, on an ecological framework of analysis. Findings – The conclusion is that the relationships between staff and service users in residential care settings are characterised by non-mutual dependency, isolation and unequal decision-making powers. Therefore such relationships deserve special focus and attention in order to safeguard and protect the people concerned. Practical implications – The paper implies that practitioners and policy makers should find ways to ensure that they listen more closely to people living in residential settings. Practitioners should ask more about the quality of relationships that people enjoy with the staff that support them. Originality/value – The paper suggests that in order to safeguard people more effectively, practitioners and policy makers should reconsider the central focus of their energies and revisit issues such as isolation, in the lives of disabled and older people living in residential care.

scholarly journals Sampling and its effect on the composition of archaeobotanical assemblages from the Roman Period

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-148
Author(s):  
Jana Apiar ◽  
Peter Apiar
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Models ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Source Information ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Heterogeneous Quality ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Formal Properties ◽  
The Given ◽  
Spatial Stratification

The subject of the presented study is taken from a dissertation project by one of the authors who focused on the processing of archaeobotanical assemblages from the Roman Period. The main aim of the research was the reconstruction of selected aspects of the subsistence strategy of the population in the given period based on the evaluation of archaeobotanical data from various chronological and cultural contexts in a designated region, available to author. The analysed sets were obtained during field excavations primarily conducted in the last third of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Uniform methods of archaeobotanical sampling were not applied in the acquisition of these assemblages. Source information on the origin of the samples was considerably heterogeneous and, in many cases, distinctly fragmentary. This was the impulse behind the investigation into the question as to whether, and to what extent, the method of sampling affects the interpretive value of the investigated dataset and what are the limitations of the analysis of such a dataset. The principal aim of this study is not the archaeobotanical evaluation of samples, but rather to investigate a possible effect of their formal properties on the composition of archaeobotanical finds. The formal properties studied include the volume and the number of collected samples, and the spatial stratification of samples (context/feature). Intuitively, it would appear that the heterogeneous quality of this information may have a certain impact on the interpretive value of an archaeobotanical assemblage. We discuss the effect of the chosen method of sampling on the composition of macro-remains in archaeobotanical samples and assemblages with the use of statistical models.

scholarly journals Migrants’ Mental Maps: Unpacking Inhabitants’ Practical Knowledges in Lisbon

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-65
Author(s):  
Franz Buhr
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Research Topic ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Visual Method ◽  
Participant Engagement ◽  
Local Space ◽  
Mental Map ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
Map Analysis

AbstractA common consequence of sticking to a research topic for a fair amount of time is that it starts colonising your everyday life to a point where you may find yourself asking questions to every new acquaintance as if they were participants in your project. Your friends may become tired of your constant interrogations, but unknown people might simply take you as someone with a peculiar sense of curiosity. I believe this is what recently happened to me when coming back from a conference and decided to call an Uber driver at Lisbon airport. This chapter explores some of the functionalities mental maps offer to migration research. Mental maps (or cognitive maps) have long helped understanding how individuals use and perceive local space. Yet, as a visual method, mental maps may be produced and analysed in distinct ways. This chapter navigates through existing research employing mental maps and argues for an interactive approach to mental map analysis, in which the researcher-participant engagement becomes as fundamental as the actual visualisation produced. Based on fieldwork with migrants in Lisbon, Portugal, the chapter illustrates the methodological potential of mental maps for yielding information about the ways migrants actively mobilise urban resources.

scholarly journals Interactive machine learning for fast and robust cell profiling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Laux ◽  
Marie F.A. Cutiongco ◽  
Nikolaj Gadegaard ◽  
Bjørn Sand Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Cell Function ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Object Segmentation ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Interactive Machine Learning

AbstractAutomatic profiling of cell morphology is a powerful tool for inferring cell function. However, this technique retains a high barrier to entry. In particular, configuring image processing parameters for optimal cell profiling is susceptible to cognitive biases and dependent on user experience. Here, we use interactive machine learning to identify the optimum cell profiling configuration that maximises quality of the cell profiling outcome. The process is guided by the user, from whom a rating of the quality of a cell profiling configuration is obtained. We use Bayesian optimisation, an established machine learning algorithm, to learn from this information and automatically recommend the next configuration to examine with the aim to maximize the quality of the processing or analysis. Compared to existing interactive machine learning tools that require domain expertise for per-class or per-pixel annotations, we rely on users explicit assessment of output quality of the cell profiling task at hand. We validated our interactive approach against the standard human trial-and-error scheme to optimise an object segmentation task using the standard software CellProfiler. Our toolkit enabled rapid optimisation of an object segmentation pipeline, increasing the quality of object segmentation over a pipeline optimised through trial-and-error. Users also attested to the ease of use and reduced cognitive load enabled by our machine learning strategy over the standard approach. We envision that our interactive machine learning approach can enhance the quality and efficiency of pipeline optimisation to democratise image-based cell profiling.

scholarly journals Empathy for Pain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ece Ozdemir Oktem ◽  
Seyda Cankaya
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Mental Ability ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
New Information ◽  
Empathy For Pain ◽  
Novel Therapeutic

Empathy is essential for being human for understanding and sharing other people’s affective and mood, including pain. Pain empathy is a mental ability that allows one person to understand another person’s pain and how to respond to that person effectively. The same neural structures as pain and empathy have recently been found to be involved in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. When someone witnesses other’s pain, besides the visual cortex, various parts of the nervous system activate, including the neural network of empathy. Empathy includes not only pain but also other emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, distress. These findings raised beg the question of whether empathy for pain is unique in its neural correlates. It is essential to know for revealing empathy is a specific context or in a state of chronic pain, depression or anxiety disorders. Because of this, pain empathy has been the central focus of empathy research in social neuroscience and other related fields, highlighting the importance of empathy for pain in daily life. Considering how pain plays a crucial role in the quality of life, determining its network and neurocognitive correlations in the empathy processing may provide a novel therapeutic approach for pain management. This area, which is still under investigation, can provide new information about pain. Under the recent studies and hypothesis, we have aimed to clarify the term of pain empathy, its components, and its neural correlates.

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