Selective attention in normal and impaired hearing.
Selective attention in normal and impaired hearing.
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DOI：
10.1177/1084713808325306
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发表时间：
2008-12
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Best V
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shinn-Cunningham BG;Best V
A common complaint amongst listeners with hearing loss (HL) is that they have difficulty communicating in common social settings. This paper reviews how normal-hearing listeners cope in such settings, especially how they focus attention on a source of interest. Results of experiments with normal-hearing listeners suggest that the ability to selectively attend depends on the ability to analyze the acoustic scene and to form perceptual auditory objects properly. Unfortunately, sound features important for auditory object formation may not be robustly encoded in the auditory periphery of HL listeners. In turn, impaired auditory object formation may interfere with the ability to filter out competing sound sources. Peripheral degradations are also likely to reduce the salience of higher-order auditory cues such as location, pitch, and timbre, which enable normal-hearing listeners to select a desired sound source out of a sound mixture. Degraded peripheral processing is also likely to increase the time required to form auditory objects and focus selective attention, so that listeners with hearing loss lose the ability to switch attention rapidly (a skill that is particularly important when trying to participate in a lively conversation). Finally, peripheral deficits may interfere with strategies that normal-hearing listeners employ in complex acoustic settings, including the use of memory to fill in bits of the conversation that are missed. Thus, peripheral hearing deficits are likely to cause a number of inter-related problems that challenge the ability of HL listeners to communicate in social settings requiring selective attention.
