Posted on: January 17, 2019

Do you experience trouble recalling the name of a person you just met or information you just received? While there are many possible reasons for this, one could be hearing loss. Several studies over the past few decades have shown that hearing loss can affect short term memory.

It may come down to attention. If you are using more attention simply to hear what’s being said, you have less attention to divert to actually storing what you hear. We only have so much attention available at a given time, so it makes sense that if we are using more focus to hear, we have less attention available to remember what was said.

What can be done? Where possible reduce background noise as much as you can. It will require less focus for you to hear when you are in a quiet environment versus a noisy one. This will free up more attention for listening to what is being said and committing it to memory. Also, if possible, write things down.

If you have a diagnosed hearing loss, hearing aids will help by giving you back the sounds you are missing. Advanced hearing aids can reduce background noise while amplifying the sounds you need to hear for communication. This will help reduce the amount of effort it takes to hear, freeing up attention for processing and storing what is being said.

Can you think of anything else that would help? For more information on hearing health please contact Accurate Hearing at one of our convenient locations:

 

Lower Sackville: 902-252-3004

Cole Harbour: 902-406-4327