Multivariate statistical analysis for acoustical characteristics of theonomatopoeic expression on tinnitus
Takahiro TAMESUE(1)(1) Yamaguchi university, Japan, tamesue@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp

Abstract
It is difﬁcult to measure tinnitus objectively and quantitatively. Subjective expression with onomatopoeia isadopted as one of the Japanese standard test methods used to assess tinnitus. In this test method, whether
tinnitus resembles pure tone or narrow band noise, and, frequency of the pure tone and bandwidth of the noise,are determined. This study focused on the subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus the patientcomplained. Techniques of multivariate statistical analysis are used for evaluation of timbre on the subjective
expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus. Speciﬁcally, ﬁrst, the Semantic Differential (SD) method with
7-point bipolar adjectival scale is employed to evaluate timbre on the subjective expression with onomatopoeia
about the tinnitus. Next, 3 factors related to timbre on the subjective expression with onomatopoeia wereextracted by use of factor analysis. Then, subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus wasclassiﬁed by factor score.
Keywords: Onomatopoeia, Tinnitus, Semantic differential method, factor analysis

INTRODUCTION
In recent years, tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) [1], which seeks to improve brain plasticity and adaptation totinnitus, has received a lot of attention as a treatment based on a neurophysiological model of tinnitus. TRT
is a sound therapy that aims to remove tinnitus from conscious perception. The goal of TRT is to decrease
the discomfort associated with tinnitus by using constant low sound pressure levels of broad-band noise (whitenoise, pink noise, speech noise) to reduce the detectability of tinnitus at the subconscious level. Although thesystemization of the therapeutictechniques in TRT is progressing [2], but ﬁrst it is necessary to understand theacoustical characteristics of tinnitus correctly. It is difﬁcult to measure tinnitus objectively and quantitatively.
Subjective expression with onomatopoeia is adopted as one of the Japanese standard test methods used to assess
tinnitus. In this test method, whether tinnitus resembles pure tone or narrow band noise, and, frequency of thepure tone and band width of the noise, are determined. This study focused on the subjective expression withonomatopoeia about the tinnitus the patient complained. Techniques of multivariate statistical analysis are used
for evaluation of timbre on the subjective expression with onom atopoeia about the tinnitus. Speciﬁcally, ﬁrst,
the Semantic Differential (SD) method with 7-point bipolar adjectival scale is employed to evaluate timbre
on the subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus. Next, 3 factors related to timbre on thesubjective expression with onomatopoeia were extracted by use of factor analysi s. Then, subjective expression
with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus was classiﬁed by factor score.

OUTLINE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTThe timbre of onomatopoeia about the tinnitus the patient complained were examined using SD (SemanticDifferential) method.
2.1 Participants
A total of 12 students with normal hearing participated in the psychological experiment.

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Table 1. Pairs of adjectives
gentledistinct
clamorous
deep
clear
strongcalm
beautifulpowerfulbrightglossyrich—————————
—
—
—

hard
dull
quiet
metalic
thick
weak
shrillugly
unsatisfactory
dark
matte
poor

Table 2. Factor loadings
Adjective pairgentle — hard
distinct — dull
clamorous — quiet
deep — metalic
clear — thickstrong — weakcalm — shrill
beautiful — ugly
powerful — unsatisfactory
bright — darkglossy — matterich — poor
Proportion of variance explainedI-0.472
0.131
0.755
0.327
-0.4000.826-0.082-0.3120.801-0.160-0.0210.803
26.46%

II
0.442
0.230
-0.307-0.0670.725-0.260-0.1440.768-0.243
0.666
0.778
0.041
22.16%

III
0.336-0.640-0.0680.720-0.2080.003
0.639-0.1160.012-0.360-0.1460.090
13.92%

2.2 Onomatopoeia
This study focused on the subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus the patient complained.
The 86 onomatopoeia [3] in Japanese were enployed in psychological experiment.
2.3 Procedure
The timbre of these onomatopoeia were examined using SD (Semantic Differential) method. Each onomatopoeia
was presented repeatedly to the participants on the monitor until their judgments were over. The participants
rated their psychological impressions of the onomatopoeia on a seven-point category scale for 12 pairs of adjectives. The pairs of adjectives were shown in Table 1.

FACTOR ANALYSIS
The data for 12 pairs of adjectives for the onomatopoeia were analyzed with the method of factor analysis. 3factors would be extracted by the criterion that eigenvalues are more than 1 were applied. The factor loadingsof the pairs of adjectives for the 3 factors are shown in Table 2. In this table, the values of factor loading withabsolute values above 0.6 are shown in bold.

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calm - shrill
deep - metalic

0.8
0.6

Factor III

0.4

gentle - hard

0.2
strong- weak0clear thickpowerful - unsatisfactoryrich - poor
clamorous - quiet-0.2

beautiful - ugly
glossy - matte-0.4

bright - dark

-0.6
-0.8-0.4

distinct - dull
-0.2

00.2

Factor II

0.4

0.6

0.6

0.8

0.81

0.4

0.2

0-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

Factor I

Figure 1. Factor loadings for each adjective pair/gaNgaN//goo//baaN//zyaaN//gooN/
gentledistinct
clamorous
deep
clear
strongcalm
beautifulpowerfulbrightglossy
rich

hard
dull
quiet
metalic
thick
weak
shrillugly
unsatisfactory
dark
matte
poor
7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Psychological evaluation

Figure 2. Semantic proﬁle of the onomatopeia related to the "poweful" factor

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/piiN//riiN//rii//miNmiN//miiN/
gentledistinct
clamorous
deep
clear
strongcalm
beautifulpowerfulbrightglossy
rich

hard
dull
quiet
metalic
thick
weak
shrillugly
unsatisfactorydark
matte
poor
765

4

321

Psychological evaluation

Figure 3. Semantic proﬁle of the onomatopeia related to the "beautiful" factor/kii//kiiN//kaaN//tiiN//pii/
gentledistinct
clamorous
deep
clear
strongcalm
beautifulpowerfulbrightglossy
rich

hard
dull
quiet
metalic
thick
weak
shrillugly
unsatisfactory
dark
matte
poor
765

4

3

21

Psychological evaluation

Figure 4. Semantic proﬁle of the onomatopeia related to the "metallic" factor

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10.5/baaN/
Factor III0/gooN/-0.5/miNmiN//miiN//zyaaN//rii//riiN//tiiN//piiN//pii//gaNgaN/
/goo/

-1
-1.5
-2-1.5-1-0.5

Factor II/kaaN//kii//kiiN/
00.5

1

1.51.5

10.5

0

-0.5

-1

-1.5

Factor I

Figure 5. Factor scores of the onomatopeia
Factor loadings of the ﬁrst factor, Factor 1, have larger loadings in the case of adjective "clamorous — quiet","strong — weak", "powerful — unsatisfactory" and "rich — poor". Factor I can be interpreted as "powerful"factor. Factor 2 shows high loadings for "clear — thick", "beautiful — ugly", "bright — dark" and "glossy —matte" and can be interpretedas "beautiful" factor. Factor 3 shows high loadings for "distinct — dull", "deep —metalic" and "calm — shrill", and can be regarded as "metalic" factor. Furthermore, the relatiohship among 3
foctor loadings about 12 pairs of adjectives, were shown in Figure 1.
Examples of the semantic proﬁles for onomatopoeia related to the "powerful" factor are shown in Figure 2.
It can be seen that /gaNgaN/, /goo/, /baaN/, /zyaaN/ and /gooN/ of onomatopoeia give the psychological impression "clamorous", "strong", "powerful" and "rich". Figure 3 shows examples of the semantic proﬁles foronomatopoeia related to the "beautiful" factor. It can be seen that /piiN/, /riiN/, /rii/, /miNmiN/ and /miiN/ of
onomatopoeia give the psychological impression "clear", "beautiful" and "bright". In Figure 4, examples of thesemantic proﬁles for onomatopoeia related to the "metalic" factor are shown. It can be seen that /kii/, /kiiN/,/kaaN/, /tiiN/ and /pii/ of onomatopoeia give the psychological impression "distinc", "metalic", "shrill".
Figure 5 shows the relatiohship among 3 factor scores about the abnove onomatopoeia. It was conﬁrmed thatthe distribution on factor score for each category was very different.

CONCLUSIONSIn this study, the subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus the patient complained, wereadopted to the techniques of factor analysis for evaluating the timbre about the tinnitus. Result of employng thesemantic Differential (SD) method with 7-point bipolar adjectival scale and factor analysis to evaluate timbre on6624

the subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus, 3 factors: "powerful", "beautiful" and "metalic",
were extracted. Subjective expression with onomatopoeia about the tinnitus was classiﬁed by factor score.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was partially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for ScientiﬁcResearch (C), No. 15K00376, 18K11502.

REFERENCES[1] P. J. Jastreboff, Phantom auditory perception (tinnitus): mechanisms of generation and perception, Neuroscience Res. 8, 4, 221-254, 1990.
[2] P. J. Jastreboff, M. M. Jastreboff, Tinnitus retraining therapy for patients with tinnitus and decreased soundtolerance, Otolaryngol Clin North Am, 36, 321-336, 2003.
[3] H. Shinohara, K. Tawara, T. Tamesue, T. Saeki, Y. Katoh, Tone Color Analysis for the Onomatopoeia toExpress Tinnitus, Proceedings of autumn meeting the Acoustical Society of Japan, 835-836, 2016.
[4] S. Namba, S. Kuwano, Method of psychological measurement for hearing research, Acoustical Society ofJapan, Colona Publishing, Tokyo (Japan), 1998.

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