The Effect of Auditory Distraction on the Useful Field of View in Hearing Impaired Individuals and its Implications for Driving

This study assessed whether the increased demand of listening in hearing impaired individuals exacerbates the detrimental impact of auditory distraction on a visual task (useful field of view test), relative to normally hearing listeners. Auditory distraction negatively affects this visual task, which is linked with various driving performance outcomes. Hearing impaired and normally hearing participants performed useful field of view testing with and without a simultaneous listening task. They also undertook a cognitive test battery. For all participants, performing the visual and auditory tasks together reduced performance on each respective test. For a number of subtests, hearing impaired participants showed poorer visual task performance, though not to a statistically significant extent. Hearing impaired participants were significantly poorer at a reading span task than normally hearing participants and tended to score lower on the most visually complex subtest of the visual task in the absence of auditory task engagement. Useful field of view performance is negatively affected by auditory distraction, and hearing loss may present further problems, given the reductions in visual and cognitive task performance suggested in this study. Suggestions are made for future work to extend this study, given the practical importance of the findings.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-016-0366-2
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/14355558
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Copyright © 2016, Springer-Verlag London.
• Authors:
  • Herbert, Nicholas C
  • Thyer, Nicholas J
  • Isherwood, Sarah J
  • Merat, Natasha
• Publication Date: 2016-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 393-402
• Serial:
  • Cognition, Technology & Work
  • Volume: 18
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Springer Verlag
  • ISSN: 1435-5558
  • EISSN: 1435-5566
  • Serial URL: http://link.springer.com/journal/10111

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Auditory perception; Distraction; Driver performance; Field of vision; Hearing impaired persons; Visualization
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01598266
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 2 2016 10:15AM