It is a simple idea: the voice says either "doe" or "toe" and at 70 milliseconds, it is clear to me which was said. But after working my way through several stages down to 18 milliseconds, all I consciously hear is "uhh". But I persevere and listen intently. I am told that trying intently to make my brain work under challenging circumstances is good for it. My scores have improved and my overall performance is supposed to put me in the 70th percentile of some group but I am not sure who. I am very confident it is not a group of typical 25 yr olds.
It is just a choice of two possibilities and I assume they are presented randomly, maybe with some conditions attached such as not a single string of the same syllable for too long. I have worked with products from this company enough that I may have developed a feel for when the offered sound will change. They say that I should always try since what I can hear and discriminate may be different from, and more than, what I am conscious of. I sure feel as though some of my progress is from lucky guessing but of course, I would.
Sometimes, the syllables are "ga" and "ka" but they may for all the world sound like "da" and "pa'. As they come at me fast and last for such a short time, the slightest lack of attention on my part and I really don't know what was said. At a high delivery speed, I tend to forget if "da" = ga or is my version of ka.
The difficulties are exactly what my hearing therapists told me I would experience. The difference between those initial consonants is a high-pitched sound and that is where my greatest hearing loss is.
Another exercise is like the memory game where duplicate decks are shuffled together and laid out in a grid. I click on a card and a sound is spoken. I often cannot tell what the sound actually is but my job is to find another card with the same sound. So, I don't need to know the sound for what it is but only to be able to tell if it is the same as a different card's.
I work on the auditory processing exercises on both the laptop and the iPad. The iPad touch screen allows me to respond a little faster with my fingers than the mouse. This is all at Brain HQ, for $10 a month.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
