Fred Arthur Fisher

ASLP 4045 Section(s) 900,950 (Fall 2019 1): Basic Rehabilitative Audiology

Module 1, Assignment 2: Hearing Loss Review and

Summaries

Hearing Loss Experience

This video attempts to simulate hearing loss by having the subject wearing ear plugs. This best simulates outer ear
conductive hearing loss, but is not ideal in simulating sensorineural, middle ear or retrocochlear hearing loss. The
goal is to provide the subject with empathy for those with hearing loss. I find this to be a bit unnecessary, because
the presumption is that a clinician will, hopefully, have a good sense of Theory of Mind and have adopted moral
sense theory in relation to their patients. One doesn’t treat patients because it is morally rational. We treat
patients because we are moved to do so. One should be able to have empathy for those with hearing loss outside
of the self. We should all be able to empathize with anyone’s difficulties and differences regardless of whether we
have experienced those difficulties directly. I should hope I am capable of simulating an emotional understanding of
any other person. I should hope I do so every day.
However, I was very excited to attempt this exercise because I hoped it would give me a practical understanding of
hearing loss. I hoped to be able to connect my moral sense theory with a physical experience.
The experience was precisely what I expected. Communication became incredibly frustrating. Even though those I
talked to wanted to understand me, I couldn’t shake the sense that they simply weren’t trying hard enough to
listen to me or speak to me. I got the sense that no one thought what I had to say was important. It was also
incredibly isolating. Conversations that others engaged in seemed almost as if they were in a foreign language. This
also made me feel as though no one was making an effort to communicate with me and did not wish for me to
contribute to the conversation. I knew this is likely how I would feel and I know people with hearing loss feel this
way. It’s one of the reasons I choose this field.

All about the dB!

This video is describing the logarithmic scale of the primary unit of sound intensity: the decibel. Rather than an
absolute value, like a meter, a decibel is a relative measure, like temperature. It’s a logarithmic scale, as opposed to
a linear scale, like the Richter scale which measure earthquakes. In audiology, the three main ways in which
decibels are used is dB SPL, dB HL and dB SL. Decibels in sound pressure level, or dB SPL , refers to the amount of
pressure in the air or the magnitude of the displacement of molecules in the air. Decibels in hearing level, or dB HL ,
is commonly used in audiology because it refers to the decibel level on the audiometer. This uses the relative levels
of sound pressure and frequency to determine the levels at which we are hearing the sound. dB SL describes
sensation level and is measured in the number of decibels above another threshold, typically HL.