When instructions fail - The effects of stimulus control training on braininjury survivors' attending and reporting during hearing screenings

Bedside hearing screenings are routinely conducted by speech and language p athologists for brain injury survivors during rehabilitation. Cognitive def icits resulting from brain injury, however, may interfere with obtaining es timates of auditory thresholds. Poor comprehension or attention deficits of ten compromise patient abilities to follow procedural instructions. This ar ticle describes the effects of jointly applying behavioral methods and psyc hophysical methods to improve two severely brain-injured survivors' attendi ng and reporting on auditory test stimuli presentation. Treatment consisted of stimulus control training that involved differentially reinforcing resp onding in the presence and absence of an auditory test tone. Subsequent hea ring screenings were conducted with novel auditory test tones and a common titration procedure. Results showed that prior stimulus control training im proved attending and reporting such that hearing screenings were conducted and estimates of auditory thresholds were obtained.