Consumer Opinion of Personal Sound Amplification Products: A Preliminary Sentiment Analysis

Purpose The purpose of this study was to preliminarily investigate the sentiments associated with consumer opinions of personal sound amplification products (PSAPs). Method Online reviews of 21 popular PSAPs were collected from the Amazon.com website. The reviews for each product were exported to compile individual product-specific text files. A sentiment mining analysis was completed to aggregate the number of positive and negative comments for each product. In addition, the effect of value for money, available features, perceived benefit, and overall perception of PSAPs was evaluated. A correlational analysis was completed to examine the relationship between different PSAP features and the number of positive and negative comments. Results Mixed-model analysis of variance showed a significantly higher number of positive comments for high- and mid-cost products in terms of overall perception and perceived benefit compared to low-cost products. For feature attribute, high-cost products had significantly higher positive comments compared to mid- and low-cost products. There was a strong correlation between price and positive comments and a moderate correlation between price and negative comments. Also, there was a significant moderate correlation between presence of compression and feedback suppression PSAP features and positive comments. Conclusions Positive sentiments expressed toward PSAPs were found to favor high- and mid-level products. However, there was a considerably high number of negative sentiments reported across all the PSAPs investigated. The noticeable thing is that the negative comments do not change significantly across price ranges. However, the positive comments significantly increase with an increase in product price range. This indicates a possible increase in benefit with high-cost products. However, this claim requires further empirical evidence through controlled studies.

Feasibility of Using a Smartphone-Based Hearing Aid Application to Improve Attitudes Toward Amplification and Hearing Impairment

Objective The objective of the study was to determine whether short-term experience (i.e., 4 weeks) with a smartphone-based hearing aid application (SHAA) might positively improve attitudes toward amplification uptake and hearing impairment. Method We recruited 15 experienced hearing aid wearers who had ceased wearing their devices for > 1 year (i.e., "In-the-Drawer" group) and 15 individuals with self-reported hearing difficulties who had yet to adopt hearing aids (i.e., "First-Time" group). We obtained participant attitudes pre- and post-SHAA using 3 surveys and analyzed perceptible changes in attitude for each survey. Comparative findings were then generalized to the health belief model in the context of perceived benefits (i.e., efficacy of an action to reduce risk) and reduced perceived barriers (i.e., tangible and psychological costs that inhibit compliance and adoption). Results A short trial period with an SHAA appears to modify the psychological perception toward amplification and reduce listener perception with respect to hearing difficulties in both groups. Conclusion A short trial period with an SHAA improved the perceived benefits and reduced the perceived barriers in the average First-Time listener, who often delays adoption of traditional amplification. The same trial period was also found to improve perceived benefits and reduce perceived barriers for the average In-the-Drawer listener, but to a lesser degree than their First-Time counterparts.

A multivariate strategy for prediction of psychoacoustic performance from electroacoustic characteristics of hearing aids

Sentence length psychoacoustic material was processed through 16 hearing aids and presented to 220 listeners. Twenty-nine indices of electroacoustic performance were abstracted from a testing program under laboratory conditions. Through a multivariate statistical strategy, psychoacoustic achievement was shown to be positively correlated to and could be predicted by a knowledge of white noise gain, bandwidth below and above 1 kHz, frequency response regularity, and transiet distortion (multiple R = 0.77; F = 2.04; df = 5,10). It was concluded that a multivariate statistical tactic, when used with discretion, can be a useful and powerful tool to predict psychoacoustic performance from a knowledge of hearing aid electroacoustic characteristics.