2016 Volume 59 Issue 3 Pages 198-206
In this study, we discuss the relationship between the amount of experience of hearing environmental sounds and the clarity of the auditory imagery of environmental sounds in people with hearing impairment. A total of 10 people with hearing impairment participated in this study. They performed a task in which they needed to indicate whether the presented picture and presented sound fit each other by pressing a button. The reaction time for judging whether a picture and sound fit each other was measured from the time of presenting the sound until the button was pressed. The reaction time was shorter when the participants heard sounds that they had experienced hearing many times before. These results suggest that the judgment improved because the auditory imagery was clearly evoked by presentation of pictures corresponding to environmental sounds that the participants had heard many times before. Hence, it is very important to encourage people with hearing impairment to pay attention to environmental sounds in their daily lives to promote the development of auditory imagery. Further studies are needed to examine the features of environmental sounds for which people with hearing impairment can create auditory imagery easily, and also for developing effective ways to create auditory imagery of environmental sounds.
