Date of Award
Spring 2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Department
Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology
First Advisor
Kathleen Gathercoal
Abstract
The current study examined whether young adults with mild hearing loss around 1000 Hz would differ from normal hearing participants in their performance on a standardized memory and learning instrument used in the field of psychology (i.e., WRAML2; Sheslow & Adams, 2003). Participants were 46 normal hearing individuals and 23 individuals with mild hearing loss. Hearing participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups (hearing control, 23 decibel loss, and 37 decibel loss). All 4 groups completed the WRAML2 under standardized conditions. Based on the effortful hypothesis, it was anticipated that individuals with hearing impairment would show deficits on verbally administered tasks requiring immediate recall. Results indicated that mildly hearing-impaired individuals were as successful as their hearing control counterparts in completing memory tasks efficiently. Only the group with simulated 37 dB hearing loss showed deficits in performance on verbally administered memory tasks with limited contextual information. These results are discussed with regard to adaptation to hearing loss.
Recommended Citation
Paige-Deming, Heather, "Examination of the Effects of Mild Hearing Loss on Memory Using the Wide-Range Assessment of Learning and Memory – Second Edition (WRAML2)" (2015). Doctor of Psychology (PsyD). 174.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/psyd/174