Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

How Allocation of Cognitive Resources May Alter Handicap

 
Author(s) Margaret K Pichora-Fuller, PhD
S. Ruth Kirson, MA
Volume 18
Number 4
Year 1994
Page(s) 223-234
Language English
Category
Keywords disability
hearing
awareness
problem
source
Abstract Hard-of-hearing people often say they do not fail to understand what is said; rather, they find it tiring to listen. To explore how difficulty in understanding is attributed to problem sources, situations were described to normal-hearing and hard-of-hearing subjects who were asked to report as many reasons as they could for why a person in the situation might have trouble understanding what was said. Few listed hearing loss as a problem reason for misunderstanding. Nevertheless, many reasons did relate to the physical or psychological state (for example, fatigue or anxiety) or cognitive abilities (for example, lack of knowledge or divided attention) of the listener. Other reasons related to the communication partner or the communication environment. Overall, people seem to be more aware of the 'upstream' by-products of hearing loss than of the strictly auditory aspects of their impairment.


Les personnes malentendantes disent souvent que, pour eux, le problème n'est pas le fait qu'ils ne comprennent pas ce qui est dit, mais plutôt la fatigue ou l'effort requis par l'écoute. Pour essayer de comprendre à quelles causes la difficulté de compréhension est attribuée, des situations typiques ont été décrites à des entendants normaux et à des malentendants. On leurs a ensuite demandé d'imaginer toutes les raisons possibles pour lesquelles un individu dans la situation en question pourrait avoir des difficultés à comprendre ce qui a été dit. Très peu mentionnent la diminution de leurs capacités auditives comme cause possible. Plusieurs raisons données, cependant, font allusion à l'état physique ou psychologique de l'auditeur (fatigue, anxiété) ou à ses capacités cognitives (manque de connaissances, distraction). L'interlocuteur et l'environnement sont deux autres raisons avancées. En conclusion, il semble que les gens sont conscients davantage des conséquences et des obstacles généraux d'une perte d'ouïe que des aspects plus strictement auditifs de leur infirmité.
Record ID 245
Link https://cjslpa.ca/files/1994_JSLPA_Vol_18/No_04_201-288/Pichora-Fuller_Kirson_JSLPA_1994.pdf
 

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