Individual Differences Research and Hearing Aid Outcomes

Abstract

This article provides a brief overview of the individual differences approach to research. This approach is first compared with the more familiar group-based approach to research. Following this comparison, some of the procedural and statistical issues central to individual differences research are noted. Ultimately, individual differences research has the potential to be of the greatest benefit to practicing clinicians; professionals who always deal with individual patients rather than the “average” or “typical” patient.

Keywords

Hearing aids - outcomes - individual differences

• References

• 1 Galton F. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences. London, UK: Macmillan; 1869
• 2 Galton F. Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. London, UK: Macmillan; 1883
• 3 Thurstone LL. Primary Mental Abilities. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 1938
• 4 Cattell RB. Description and Measurement of Personality. New York, NY: World Book; 1946
• 5 Cattell RB. Personality and Motivation Structure and Measurement. New York, NY: World Book; 1957
• 6 Cronbach LJ. The two disciplines of scientific psychology. Am Psychol 1957; 12: 671-684
• 7 Cronbach LJ. Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology. Am Psychol 1975; 30: 116-127
• 8 Kanai R, Rees G. The structural basis of inter-individual differences in human behaviour and cognition. Nat Rev Neurosci 2011; 12: 231-242
• 9 Ram N, Lindenberger U, Blanchard-Fields F. Introduction to the special section on intraindividual variability and aging. Psychol Aging 2009; 24: 775-777
• 10 Karlin JE. A factorial study of auditory function. Psychometrika 1942; 7: 251-279
• 11 Carroll JB. Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 1993
• 12 Watson CS, Kelly WJ, Wroton HW. Factors in the discrimination of tonal patterns. II. Selective attention and learning under various levels of stimulus uncertainty. J Acoust Soc Am 1976; 60: 1176-1186
• 13 Watson CS. Uncertainty, informational masking, and the capacity of immediate auditory memory. In: Yost WA, Watson CS, , eds. Auditory Processing of Complex Sounds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1987: 267-277
• 14 Surprenant AM, Watson CS. Individual differences in the processing of speech and nonspeech sounds by normal-hearing listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 2001; 110: 2085-2095
• 15 Kidd GR, Watson CS, Gygi B. Individual differences in auditory abilities. J Acoust Soc Am 2007; 122: 418-435
• 16 Humes LE, Watson BU, Christensen LA, Cokely CG, Halling DC, Lee L. Factors associated with individual differences in clinical measures of speech recognition among the elderly. J Speech Hear Res 1994; 37: 465-474
• 17 Humes LE. Speech understanding in the elderly. J Am Acad Audiol 1996; 7: 161-167
• 18 Humes LE. The contributions of audibility and cognitive factors to the benefit provided by amplified speech to older adults. J Am Acad Audiol 2007; 18: 590-603
• 19 Humes LE. Dimensions of hearing aid outcome. J Am Acad Audiol 1999; 10: 26-39
• 20 Humes LE. Factors underlying the speech-recognition performance of elderly hearing-aid wearers. J Acoust Soc Am 2002; 112 (3 Pt 1) 1112-1132
• 21 Humes LE. Modeling and predicting hearing aid outcome. Trends Amplif 2003; 7: 41-75
• 22 Humes LE, Garner CB, Wilson DL, Barlow NN. Hearing-aid outcome measured following one month of hearing aid use by the elderly. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2001; 44: 469-486
• 23 Humes LE, Ahlstrom JB, Bratt GW, Peek BF. Studies of hearing aid outcome measures in older adults: a comparison of technologies and an examination of individual differences. Semin Hear 2009; 30: 112-128
• 24 Humes LE, Krull V. Evidence about the effectiveness of hearing aids in adults. In: Wong L, Hickson L, , eds. Evidence Based Practice in Audiology. San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing; 2012
• 25 Akeroyd MA. Are individual differences in speech reception related to individual differences in cognitive ability? A survey of twenty experimental studies with normal and hearing-impaired adults. Int J Audiol 2008; 47 (Suppl. 02) S53-S71
• 26 Houtgast T, Festen JM. On the auditory and cognitive functions that may explain an individual's elevation of the speech reception threshold in noise. Int J Audiol 2008; 47: 287-295
• 27 Humes LE, Dubno JR. Factors affecting speech understanding in older adults. In: Gordon-Salant S, Frisina RD, Popper AN, Fay RR, , eds. The Aging Auditory System: Perceptual Characterization and Neural Bases of Presbycusis. Chapter 8. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research (SHAR). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag; 2010
• 28 Gorsuch RL. Factor Analysis, 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 1983
• 29 MacCallum RC, Austin JT. Applications of structural equation modeling in psychological research. Annu Rev Psychol 2000; 51: 201-226
• 30 Byrne BM. Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2001
• 31 van Buuren S, Oudshoorn CGM. Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations: MICE V1.0 User's manual. TNO Report PG/VGZ/00.038. Leiden, The Netherlands: TNO Preventie en Gezondheid; 2000
• 32 van Buuren S, Groothuis-Oudshoorn K. MICE: Mulitivariate Imputation by Chained Equations in R. J Stat Softw 2011; 45: 1-61