Designing for the Life Span Segment 3

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Slide 8 Content

Fundamentals of Human Factors: Sensory Performance.

The Ear and Hearing.

What do we hear?

Amplitude... Loudness.
Frequency... Pitch (Highs and lows).

Narration of Slide 8

Listen to the Audio (MP3, 350 KB) or read the transcript:

Sound has two fundamental components - as any student of a grade school science class can explain. These distinct components are critical from the standpoint of hearing change in aging - and those changes that are not age related.

Amplitude hearing loss is what most people regard as either deafness or significant hearing loss usually described in percentages. Amplitude hearing loss can occur pathologically through disease, reaction to medications or induced environmentally through noise pollution.

Frequency hearing loss is loss of sensitivity to the pitch of sound - both the highs and lows. Loss of sensitivity to high pitched sounds is more frequent in aging and is referred to as Presbycusis.

Slide 8 Notes

Text:

Fundamentals of Human Factors.

The text in this slide breaks down sounds into two dimensions, amplitude (loudness) and frequency (pitch). Amplitude or the loudness of sound is a primary cause of environmentally induced hearing loss - especially among the young. Frequency hearing loss is termed Presbycusis and is the loss associated with aging.