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Biomedical subjects

J Bench

Publications and source records attributed to J Bench.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

The influence of training on tinnitus perception: an evaluation 12 months after tinnitus management training.

Sixty-five subjects were reviewed 12 months after tinnitus management training, which had been comprised variously of information, relaxation training and a therapeutic noise strategy. Seventy-four per cent of subjects reported increased habituation to tinnitus (n = 48), 65% reported reduced tinnitus annoyance (n = 42), and 52% reported an increased ability to cope with tinnitus (n = 34). Twenty-five per cent of subjects reported deterioration in coping ability (n = 16), 23% reported reduced habituation to tinnitus (n = 15) and 8% reported increased tinnitus-related annoyance (n = 5). None of the management strategies were found to be significantly more effective than others in facilitating improved coping or habituation to tinnitus. Subjects who reported reduced coping and habituation to tinnitus experienced greater levels of general life stress than subjects who reported increased habituation and coping ability. The use of relaxation therapies as applied in this study did not appear to influence the level of tinnitus distress or the level of life stress. Thirty-seven per cent of subjects given long-term low-level white noise (LTWN) stimulation reported benefit. However, LTWN stimulation did not significantly alter tinnitus awareness or the minimum masking level (MML) of tinnitus. Long-term low-level white noise stimulation appeared to influence cognitive reaction to tinnitus rather than its physical perception. Subjects who initially had low ability to cope with tinnitus and preferred a more active coping style reported significantly greater benefit from LTWN stimulation than subjects whose primary approach to coping was to regulate the emotional impact of tinnitus.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

On organizational models for clinical education.

For reasons more epistemological than pedagogical, the preclinical, theoretical part of allied health education can be provided by a relatively small number of faculty in a centralized educational institution. Clinical education, however, is pluralistic, requiring a variety of clinical teachers, who use a variety of clinical approaches, in various clinical settings. Three models for the organization of clinical education are explored: 1) the external model, in which theory teaching is offered in an educational institution relatively divorced from clinical teaching provided in clinical service settings; 2) the internal model, in which both theory and clinical teaching are provided in the same institution; and 3) the bridging model, in which educational and clinical service institutions remain organizationally separate but with bridging arrangements to facilitate the clinical education. The advantages and disadvantages of each model are considered.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed1998

A study of interrater reliability when using videofluoroscopy as an assessment of swallowing.

Videofluoroscopic assessment of swallowing is widely used in clinical settings. The interpretation of such assessments depends on subjective visual judgments but the reliability of these judgments has been poorly researched. This study measured interrater reliability of judgments, made by speech pathologists, of videofluoroscopic images of subjects swallowing liquid and semisolid boluses. A 5-point rating scale was used in three conditions: individually after careful reading; together with other speech pathologists in group discussion; and individually after the group discussion. Analysis of the ratings for the three conditions revealed that the level of agreement among raters was generally higher for semisolid swallows than for liquid swallows. The highest levels of agreement occurred for ratings made after group discussions. The levels of agreement were lowest when raters worked alone, relying only on reading the scale. Individual rating after group discussion resulted in higher levels of agreement than sole reliance on reading the scale. Factors influencing the levels of interrater agreement, including the timing of observations, bolus consistency, the quality of the image, and the complexity of the task, are discussed.

Deglutition↗
PubMed1997

Audiological and psychological characteristics of a group of tinnitus sufferers, prior to tinnitus management training.

A profile of audiological and psychological characteristics, obtained before starting tinnitus management training, is presented for 96 subjects with tinnitus. Variability was marked in all measures. A history of headaches, neck or back pain, or balance problems was not related to the ability to cope with tinnitus. The coping strategies used to manage tinnitus were influenced by the beliefs held about tinnitus, but the coping strategies chosen were not necessarily effective. No gender differences were found in coping ability or overall stress levels, although there were gender differences on some psychological measures and stress influences. Subjects who had previously sought assistance differed from those who had not in the complexity of the tinnitus sounds, the level of emotional reaction and the use of coping behaviours.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Managing tinnitus: a comparison of different approaches to tinnitus management training.

A series of studies examining the interaction between the characteristics of individual tinnitus sufferers and the effectiveness of the methods used to assist them has been conducted. The first of these studies provided a baseline description of 96 people with tinnitus, according to a range of audiological and psychological variables. In the present paper four differing tinnitus management programmes are described and the related changes in tinnitus perception reported three months after tinnitus management training. For the majority of subjects, the tinnitus was less annoying and less distressing three months after attending tinnitus management training. However, the majority of subjects reported no change in tinnitus loudness, or tinnitus awareness and no change in their tinnitus coping ability. Subjects receiving low level white noise stimulation reported greater improvement in tinnitus coping ability than subjects who received information and relaxation training, although there was no associated improvement in tinnitus awareness. Subjects' beliefs about tinnitus and preferred coping style may have influenced the reported benefit or otherwise of the differing tinnitus management techniques.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1995

Choosing talkers for the BKB/A Speechreading Test: a procedure with observations on talker age and gender.

A procedure is described for choosing talkers for the BKB/A (BKB/Australian version) Speechreading Test. The main aims were: to select several talkers from a pool of potential talkers, to avoid adventitiously choosing a markedly atypical single talker; to assess speechreading as a general skill rather than as talker-specific; and to select talkers who were acceptable to speechreaders, relatively easy to speechread, and comparable in their speechreadability. Because of the number of variables involved and the demanding nature of the task for speechreaders, a three-stage selection procedure was adopted. In the resulting BKB/A 21-sentence list Speechreading Test, four of the 16 sentences in a list are each spoken by four talkers, chosen as follows. In Stage 1, 16 talkers (four of each age/gender set: older men, older women, younger men, younger women) were selected from an original pool of 40 (10 of each set), via rankings made by eight hearing-impaired judges with speechreading experience. In Stage 2, the final four talkers (one of each set) were selected from the 16 via the speechreading scores of further hearing-impaired subjects with speechreading experience. In Stage 3, the order of talker appearance within lists (in random order versus over blocks of four consecutive sentences) was determined. This three-stage approach to talker selection identified differences between talker candidates within sets, except for younger men, and suggested that, overall, younger women were the easiest to speechread. The discussion addresses the merits and disadvantages of this approach to talker selection, and suggests some reasons for the documented differences in speechreadability among talkers of different age and gender.

Cross-Over Studies↗
PubMed1983

Summarizing pure tone audiograms: an extension of Bamford et al. (1980).

This paper extends the findings of a previous report (Bamford et al., 1980) which described a principal components analysis of pure tone audiometric data. Using a similar approach to the analysis of a large number of pure tone audiograms, the present study confirms the previous work. By far the greater part of the the audiogram variance could be ascribed to two components, one associated with the degree of, and the other with the slope of, the hearing loss. Further, it is shown that the proportions of the variance attributed to the two components change in a meaningful way according to the type of hearing loss: middle-ear, inner-ear, and mixed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Pure tone audiograms from hearing-impaired children. II. Predicting speech-hearing from the audiogram.

Pure tone audiograms and speech audiograms using sentence lists were obtained from 150 8-16-year-old children with pure tone hearing losses ranging from mild to severe. Most of the hearing impairments were cochlear in origin. Three 'speech-hearing' measures were selected from the speech audiograms, and it was shown that the correlation coefficients between two of these and the pure tone hearing thresholds were roughly in agreement with figures from previous studies of adults = 0.882 for Speech Reception Threshold and 0.533 for Discrimination Score. In addition, a correlation of 0.329 was found between the slope of the speech audiogram and pure tone thresholds. The strength of different summaries of the pure tone audiogram for predicting the various speech-hearing measures were compared. It was found that although the traditional summaries did quite well, their relative strengths varied according to the speech-hearing measure under consideration. The best summary predictors for all the speech-hearing measures were, either alone or in combination, two indices which have been proposed recently by the present authors, and which measure both the degree of pure tone hearing loss and the slope of the pure tone audiogram. However, the gains in predictive strength achieved with these indices were small.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Auditory deprivation--an intrinsic or extrinsic problem? Some comments on Kyle (1978).

The relevance of animal work to early auditory deprivation, as discussed by Kyle (1978), is questioned. It is argued that auditory experience from birth, or even much later, is not necessarily required for subsequent hearing for spoken language. It is also questioned whether concern for intrinsic difficulties, such as possible cortical damage resulting from auditory deprivation, is appropriate. A more productive approach may be to pay more attention to the extrinsic aspect--the linguistically principled rehabilitation of the hearing-impaired child.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

The BKB (Bamford-Kowal-Bench) sentence lists for partially-hearing children.

Linguistic guidelines for the design of sentences for speech audiometry with children are described, and new lists of test sentences which are based on such guidelines--the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Sentence Lists for Children--are introduced. Audiometric data relating to the use of the new lists are presented and discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. III. Six-month-old babies.

Ten clinically normal 6-month-old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was simultaneously videotaperecorded and assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations observers were permitted to see the babies for 13 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec formed a prestimulus observation period and the following 8 sec possibly contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to not (1) prestimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) facial, digit, and limb movements and "wholistic"impressions (e.g., "stilling"). The agreement between the live and video situations was modest for prestimulus activity and confidence in response, and fair to good for movement item. The outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier work on neonates and 6-week infants, although it did suggest a small loss of information with the videorecording of 6-month infants.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1976

Studies in infant behavioural audiometry. I. Neonates.

The behaviour of 93 clinically normal neonates was video-recorded while they were presented with sequences of sound stimuli which varied in sound pressure level, bandwidth and rise time and which included two voice signals and a no-sound (control) trial. Video records were made both for the whole body aspect and for a 3 1/2 X "close-up" of the head. Later, the video records were shown to 6 observers who were allowed to see the babies for 10 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec was a pre-stimulus observation period, and the second 5 sec usually contained a sound stimulus. Between the trials, the observers were given 20 sec in which to record (1) pre-stimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) movement details (data for (3) not reported here). For the whole-body aspect, observers were allowed to see (1) the whole body, (2) the head, arms and trunk, (3) the arms, trunk and legs, (4) the head only, (5) the arms and trunk only, or (6) the legs only, during different viewing sessions. For the head aspect, they could see (7) the whole head, (8) the head above the upper lip, or (9) the head below the upper lip. This segmentation was achieved by masking parts of the television screen with shutters. The response confidence ratings were analysed using aspects of signal detection theory to show differences amongst various body segments (p less than 0.001), sound pressure levels (p less than 0.001), bandwidths (p less than 0.001), and rise times (p less than 0.01). There were significant interactions between sound pressure level X bandwidth (p less than 0.001), sound pressure level X rise time (p less than 0.01), and bandwidth X rise time (p less than 0.001). A 90-dB broad-spectrum noiseband was by far the most effective stimulus. The response to different sound stimuli was differentially affected by pre-stimulus activity state. The results are discussed in relation to recent work on clinical screening techniques.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1975

A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. II. Six-week-old infants.

Ten clinically normal 6-week old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers and simultaneously videorecorded. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations, observers were permitted to see the babies for 10 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec was a prestimulus observation period, and the second 5 sec might have contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to note (1) prestimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) facial, digit, and limb movements, and "wholistic" impressions (e.g., "stilling"). The agreement between the live and video situations was fair for prestimulus activity, modest for confidence in response, and fair to good for movement items. The use of videorecorded material for 6-week old infants generally caused rather small losses of relevant information and apparently will not overly distort the findings of experimental or clinical work. This outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier study of neonates.

Acoustic Stimulation↗