5SThe Fifth Eriksholm Workshop on "Hearing Impairment and Cognitive Energy" was convened to develop a consensus among interdisciplinary experts about what is known on the topic, gaps in knowledge, the use of terminology, priorities for future research, and implications for practice. The general term cognitive energy was chosen to facilitate the broadest possible discussion of the topic. It goes back to Titchener (1908) who described the effects of attention on perception; he used the term psychic energy for the notion that limited mental resources can be flexibly allocated among perceptual and mental activities. The workshop focused on three main areas: (1) theories, models, concepts, definitions, and frameworks; (2) methods and measures; and (3) knowledge translation. We defined effort as the deliberate allocation of mental resources to overcome obstacles in goal pursuit when carrying out a task, with listening effort applying more specifically when tasks involve listening. We adapted Kahneman's seminal (1973) Capacity Model of Attention to listening and proposed a heuristically useful Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL). Our FUEL incorporates the well-known relationship between cognitive demand and the supply of cognitive capacity that is the foundation of cognitive theories of attention. Our FUEL also incorporates a motivation dimension based on complementary theories of motivational intensity, adaptive gain control, and optimal performance, fatigue, and pleasure. Using a three-dimensional illustration, we highlight how listening effort depends not only on hearing difficulties and task demands but also on the listener's motivation to expend mental effort in the challenging situations of everyday life.
Whereas research of the last 28 years yielded valuable information regarding relevant and irrelevant factors in hearing aid health care, there are still many relevant issues that have never been investigated in controlled studies. These are discussed.
Objective-To develop and evaluate a 12-item version of the Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale for use in clinical research and rehabilitation settings, and provide a formula for converting scores between the full (SSQ49) and abbreviated (SSQ12) versions.Design-Items were selected independently at the three centres (Eriksholm, MRC Institute of Hearing Research, University of New England) to be representative of the complete scale. A consensus was achieved after discussion.Study Sample-The data set (n=1220) used for a factor analysis (Akeroyd et al., submitted) was re-analysed to compare original SSQ scores (SSQ49) with scores on the short version (SSQ12).Results-A scatter-plot of SSQ12 scores against SSQ49 scores showed that SSQ12 score was about 0.6 of a scale point lower than the SSQ49 (0-10 scale) in the re-analysis of the Akeroyd et al. data. SSQ12 scores lay on a slightly steeper slope than scores on the SSQ49.
Conclusions-The SSQ12 provides similar results to SSQ49 in a large clinical research sample. The slightly lower average SSQ12 score and the slightly steeper slope reflect the composition of this short form relative to the SSQ49.
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