Musical Aptitude as a Variable in the Assessment of Working Memory and Selective Attention Tasks

Measure of Auditory Working Memory Span Using Monosyllabic Word Recognition Test in Young Adults With Normal Hearing: A Preliminary Study

PURPOSE

Measuring working memory at hearing clinics is important. This study attempted to develop a test protocol that measures auditory working memory using a standardized monosyllabic word list in Korean Speech Audiometry (KSA).

METHOD

We included 25 young adults with normal hearing in this study. Participants conducted word recognition and word span tests concurrently using the KSA monosyllabic word lists. We designed four test conditions according to the presence or absence of background noise and word recall order: quiet-forward (QF), quiet-backward (QB), noise-forward, (NF), and noise-backward (NB). We implemented digit span tests in the Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (K-WAIS-IV) to determine the validity of the working memory outcomes.

RESULTS

Word recognition scores of QF and QB were significantly higher than those of NF and NB. The percentages of correctly recalled words and word recall span scores were highest in QF and lowest in NB. Overall, the Pearson correlation and multiple regression statistics showed that our word span test outcomes for QB and NF were highly associated with digit span scores on the K-WAIS-IV.

CONCLUSION

Our proposed test protocol showed the possibility of measuring auditory working memory and monosyllabic word recognition simultaneously by validating the results with K-WAIS-IV outcomes.

Effect of Occupational Noise Exposure on Cognition and Suprathreshold Auditory Skills in Normal-Hearing Individuals

OBJECTIVES

Adverse effects of noise exposure on hearing and cognition are well documented in the literature. Recently, it has becoming increasingly evident that noise exposure deteriorates suprathreshold auditory skills, even though the hearing sensitivity is intact. This condition is termed as cochlear synaptopathy or hidden hearing loss, which is apparent in animal models. However, equivocal findings are reported in humans. This study aimed at assessing the working memory, attention abilities, and suprathreshold hearing abilities in normal-hearing individuals with and without occupational noise exposure. We also explored the relationship between cognitive measures and suprathreshold auditory measures.

DESIGN

The study participants were divided into two groups. All the participants had normal-hearing thresholds. The control group consisted of 25 individuals with no occupational noise exposure, whereas the noise exposure group had 25 individuals exposed to occupational noise of 85 dBA for a minimum period of 1 year. Working memory was assessed using auditory digit span (forward and backward), operation span, and reading span. The Erikson flanker test was used to evaluate attention abilities. The suprathreshold hearing was assessed in terms of gap detection thresholds and sentence identification in noise.

RESULTS

The results showed that the noise exposure group performed poorly compared to the control group on all auditory and cognitive tasks except the reading span.

CONCLUSION

The results of the study suggest that occupational noise exposure may hamper the cognitive skills and suprathreshold hearing abilities of the individual despite having normal peripheral hearing.