Listening effort in language education of hard-of-hearing children

  • Hard-of-hearing students can join mainstream education in foreign languages alongside their peers. 
  • Challenges are observed especially during listening tasks, and hard-of-hearing students typically experience more listening effort.

The study investigates the following topics:

  • What are the effects of listening effort in a listening task?
  • How do pupillometry, response time and self-reported effort measures relate in measuring listening effort?
  • What are the experiences of hard-of-hearing students in mainstream language education? How can their academic success be supported?

Principal Researcher

Can Buldu, MA(education), PhD Student

Virtual Sound Environments for Hearing Assessment 

  • Noisy listening situations pose significant challenges for individuals with hearing impairment
  • In this research project, the focus is on developing novel hearing assessment methods specifically designed to evaluate hearing performance under such conditions
  • The approach involves creating virtual sound environments using multichannel loudspeaker setups and conducting hearing assessment in them.

The research hypothesis is that this approach can lead to earlier diagnosis of hearing impairment and more effective hearing rehabilitation.

Principal Researcher: 

Ville Saari, MSc, PhD Student

Developing Machine Learning-based Smart Audiometry 

  • Our goal is to develop a fully automated audiometer for independent patient use that predicts hearing thresholds faster than the traditional Hughson-Westlake procedure. 
  • In this work, we optimize the usability, feasibility and efficiency of the test for clinical use, focusing on patients over 65 years of age.

Principal Researcher: 

Motoki Saito, MSc, PhD Student