On the Feasibility of Assessing Social Situations Using Ecological Momentary Assessment – A Comparison Between Singapore and German Test Participants

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a method comprising repeated self-reports in the participant’s natural environment which can be used to evaluate hearing aids in real life. Social situations are particularly important for such evaluations as these are situations where listening is critical and often difficult. However, as shown for a German subject sample by Schinkel-Bielefeld et al., these are also situations where test participants may skip a questionnaire as it could be perceived as impolite to answer a questionnaire on the smartphone. This leads to the underrepresentation of speech in noise situations in EMA assessment. However, the acceptance of smartphone use in public depends on cultural norms and may be larger in Asian countries. Repeating the previous study with 10 Singaporean hearing-impaired test participants, we observed that self-reports are often answered with some delay but not skipped in social situations. Also, contrary to the German study, speech in noise situations were not underrepresented in questionnaires in the Singapore study.