How Purposeful Adaptive Responses to Adverse Conditions Facilitate Successful Auditory Functioning: A Conceptual Model

Abstract

This paper describes a conceptual model of adaptive responses to adverse auditory conditions with the aim of providing a basis for better understanding the demands of, and opportunities for, successful real-life auditory functioning. We review examples of behaviors that facilitate auditory functioning in adverse conditions. Next, we outline the concept of purpose-driven behavior and describe how changing behavior can ensure stable performance in a changing environment. We describe how tasks and environments (both physical and social) dictate which behaviors are possible and effective facilitators of auditory functioning, and how hearing disability may be understood in terms of capacity to adapt to the environment. A conceptual model of adaptive cognitive, physical, and linguistic responses within a moderating negative feedback system is presented along with implications for the interpretation of auditory experiments which seek to predict functioning outside the laboratory or clinic. We argue that taking account of how people can improve their own performance by adapting their behavior and modifying their environment may contribute to more robust and generalizable experimental findings.