ABSTRACT
A library of visual reinforcers has been created to facilitate visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) testing in children with developmental disabilities. The library includes 45 reinforcer sets-photos or videos grouped by a common theme-that were created based on commonly reported interests of children with developmental disabilities. Each reinforce set contains a minimum of 20 unique photo or video files that can be downloaded in two formats: one for commercially available VRA reinforcement systems and another for a custom setup. The library is freely available for download online under a Creative Commons License (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License). Use of these materials has the potential to improve behavioral testing outcomes for children with developmental disabilities, including children with restricted interests. Future research is needed to determine the effectiveness of implementing these materials in clinical settings.
ABSTRACT
In a remote microphone (RM) system, a talker speaks into a microphone and the signal is transmitted to the hearing aids worn by the hearing-impaired listener. A difficulty with remote microphones, however, is that the signal received at the hearing aid bypasses the head and pinna, so the acoustic cues needed to externalize the sound source are missing. The objective of this paper is to process the RM signal to improve externalization when listening through earphones. The processing is based on a structural binaural model, which uses a cascade of processing modules to simulate the interaural level difference, interaural time difference, pinna reflections, ear-canal resonance, and early room reflections. The externalization results for the structural binaural model are compared to a left-right signal blend, the listener's own anechoic head-related impulse response (HRIR), and the listener's own HRIR with room reverberation. The azimuth is varied from straight ahead to 90° to one side. The results show that the structural binaural model is as effective as the listener's own HRIR plus reverberation in producing an externalized acoustic image, and that there is no significant difference in externalization between hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners.
