Presence of ipsilateral acoustic reflex artifact may result in clinical misidentification.

Objective: Upon calibration of a specific commercially available immittance device, an artifact was consistently measured in a calibration cavity when in ipsilateral acoustic reflex mode. These results were replicated in a controlled fashion, raising concerns about how clinical results might potentially be misinterpreted.

Design: Responses were measured from an Interacoustics Titan and Grason-Stadler Tympstar Pro immittance device coupled to a 0.

Knowledge and Awareness of Ear Protection Devices for Sound Sensitivity by Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Purpose Sensitivity to sounds and atypical reactions to sensory input by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been reported in the literature. In response to this sensitivity, some individuals use ear protection devices (EPDs) such as noise-canceling headphones, earplugs, or earmuffs to attenuate the perceived unpleasant sounds. Given the communication deficits often noted in this population and the essential role of hearing in speech and language development, the impact of wearing EPDs to attenuate sound needs to be explored.

Accounting for the Occlusion Effect with Insert Earphones.

Background: There are clinical implications associated with knowing when the occlusion effect (OE) must be accounted for during bone conduction (BC) testing because spurious results can occur when errors are made in this regard. The amount of OE produced when insert earphones (IEs) are used varies in the literature; thus, further investigation is warranted.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to determine the OE during BC threshold measurements under the following occluding conditions used clinically: when using partial insertion (PI) versus full insertion (FI) depth and when occluding one versus both ears.

Speech Recognition in Nonnative versus Native English-Speaking College Students in a Virtual Classroom.

Background: Limited attention has been given to the effects of classroom acoustics at the college level. Many studies have reported that nonnative speakers of English are more likely to be affected by poor room acoustics than native speakers. An important question is how classroom acoustics affect speech perception of nonnative college students.