UK psychologists, discover the limitations of conventional hearing tests in fully assessing a patient's auditory capabilities. This article clarifies the vital distinction between sensation and perception, and its implications for understanding an individual's real-world listening experiences. Broaden your diagnostic scope by recognising how these tests fail to capture challenges in noisy environments.
How much can be deduced from conventional hearing tests, and why are they not sufficient in an assessment of an individual's overall hearing?
As a psychologist, it's really interesting to hear Natanya discuss this, as she distinguishes between ideas which are familiar to all health professionals interested in how the brain works: those of sensation and perception.
Sensation refers to the process of sensing our surrounding environment through the 5 senses: touch, taste, sight, sound and smell. This information is sent to our brains in a raw form, where the process of perception begins. Perception is the way we interpret sensations, and make sense of the world around us.
While an individual might perform well on an audiogram or a simple hearing test, this test only tells us about the individual's capacity to register and sense the auditory stimulus, but not the process of interpreting this stimulus. In addition and relevant to Central Auditory Processing Disorder, conventional hearing tests do not tell us about the capacity of the individual to effectively hear and listen in a noisy environment, and to function effectively in the real auditory world.
Watch the clip below for a perspective from clinical audiologist Natanya Berry. If you're interested in her CPD-accredited talk on CAPD, its assessment and treatment, you can find it here.
-Leanne