Authors: Nicky Chong-White¹, Jhanvi Ramani¹, Marisa Poulos¹, Catherine Kwok¹
¹National Acoustic Laboratories
Background: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a valuable method for capturing real-world hearing experiences and has evolved from paper-based diaries to smartphone-based approaches. While smartphone EMA enables in-the-moment reporting, it can still be awkward or disruptive in everyday listening situations. Smartwatches offer a more discreet, low-burden way for individuals to report listening difficulties as they occur, while also enabling capture of contextual and physiological data.
Method: We developed NEMA+ Watch, a smartwatch-based extension of NAL’s ecological momentary assessment platform. Participants can initiate brief surveys directly on the Apple Watch when they experience listening difficulty, providing contextual information about the situation. The system also supports collection of passive data streams, including activity, heart rate, and environmental sound exposure, which can be time-aligned with survey responses.
Results: NEMA+ Watch enabled frequent, quick, discreet reporting in everyday environments and supported capture of contextual and physiological data alongside self-reported listening experiences. The platform was successfully deployed in a sponsored research study, demonstrating feasibility and immediate research application.
Conclusion: NEMA+ Watch extends EMA for hearing research by combining user-driven reporting with wearable-based passive data collection. This approach enhances ecological validity and enables richer characterisation of real-world hearing experiences. The platform establishes new capability for multimodal, real-world data capture and supports future research investigating everyday communication challenges.
