The Emotional Communication in Hearing Questionnaire (EMO-CHeQ): Development and Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech and Hearing Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Vocal emotion perception is crucial for effective communication.
• Hearing impairment can significantly impact the ability to perceive emotional cues in speech.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the subjective experience of handicap related to vocal emotion communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Emotional Communication in Hearing Questionnaire (EMO-CHeQ).
• To assess self-reported experiences of hearing and handicap related to vocal emotion information.
• To evaluate the reliability and ecological validity of the EMO-CHeQ.

Main Methods:

• Study 1: Internet-based administration of a 42-item EMO-CHeQ to 586 participants (normal hearing, hearing impaired without aids, hearing impaired with aids). Exploratory factor analysis was used.
• Study 2: Laboratory-based administration of a 16-item EMO-CHeQ to 32 participants, alongside an emotion-identification task (audio and audiovisual).
• Statistical analyses included factor analysis, group comparisons, and correlation between self-report and performance measures.

Main Results:

• Exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 resulted in a 16-item EMO-CHeQ with four factors explaining 66.3% of the variance.
• Both hearing-impaired groups (with and without hearing aids) reported greater vocal emotion communication handicap than the normal-hearing group.
• In Study 2, hearing-impaired groups performed worse on audio-only emotion identification than normal-hearing individuals, correlating with self-reported handicap.

Conclusions:

• The 16-item EMO-CHeQ is a reliable and ecologically valid tool for assessing vocal emotion communication handicap.
• The findings suggest behavioral deficits in emotion perception for individuals with hearing impairment, aligning with self-reported handicap.
• The EMO-CHeQ provides a rapid and effective method for evaluating listening experiences with vocal emotion signals.