Georgios Marentakis

• Herrebrøden, Marte Karoline; Marentakis, Georgios & Nordahl-Hansen, Anders (2026). Educational professionals' perspectives on hearing protection devices for autistic students. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. ISSN 1750-9467. 139. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Background Autistic students who are sensitive to auditory stimuli often experience sensory overload in school due to insufficient adaptation to auditory barriers. Hearing protection devices (HPD) may serve as a valuable support by reducing auditory input and facilitating participation in learning activities and overall well-being. This study aims to explore the practices, perceptions, and competence of employees in school and the Educational and Psychological Service regarding the use of HPD for autistic students across different educational settings. Furthermore, the study examines the need for comprehensive guidelines and the implications for strengthening inclusive educational practices. Method Data were collected through a digital questionnaire completed by 608 school professionals and employees of the Educational and Psychological Service, all working with autistic students. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used to examine patterns and predictors of HPD use and related outcome measures. Results HPD are widely used in educational settings, and educational professionals perceive their use as potentially supporting autistic students' participation and well-being across school contexts. The findings also reveal potential barriers, including a lack of standardized routines and practices, as well as variability in awareness and competence related to HPD use among educational professionals. Conclusions This study highlights the considerable potential of HPD to support autistic students in everyday school contexts. However, a gap remains between their perceived benefits and their practical implementation in inclusive educational settings. This discrepancy is likely related to variability in professional competence, as well as the absence of consistent routines and clearly established guidelines.

• Redi-Tränk, Cathrine Rismo; Dechsling, Anders; Marentakis, Georgios & Nordahl-Hansen, Anders (2026). Mapping the landscape of tests employed in diagnosing developmental auditory processing disorder in adults: A scoping review. Acta Psychologica. ISSN 0001-6918. 269. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.107637. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Purpose Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a common but often overlooked neurodevelopmental disorder affecting auditory cognition with psychological, physical, and social consequences. Despite affecting all ages, research on APD diagnosis primarily focuses on children, leaving adult diagnostic criteria and evidence-based tests and guidelines poorly defined. This scoping review aims to map tests used to diagnose developmental APD in adults and identify gaps in the literature. Method A systematic search was conducted across ten databases (ERIC, CINAHL, Scopus, PubPsych, PsycINFO, PubMed, Cochrane, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and EMBASE). Studies including adults with normal peripheral hearing and reporting diagnostic auditory tests for APD, without cooccurring cognitive, developmental, congenital, or neurological disorder, were included. After deduplication, 1787 records were identified, title and abstract screening yielded 163 full-text articles. Results Six studies were included, two experimental studies (n = 59 adults), and four surveys (n = 603 clinicians). Substantial inconsistency in APD test use, heterogeneity in participant characteristics, and referral criteria were revealed. Conclusion There is currently no consensus on diagnostic tests or criteria for APD in adults. The low number of studies, along with methodological variations, highlights a need for research to provide evidence for what an appropriate test battery would be. Addressing these gaps should lead to improvements in diagnostic reliability and intervention outcomes for adults with APD.

• Herrebrøden, Marte Karoline; Marentakis, Georgios; Dechsling, Anders; Esposito, Gianluca; Dimitriou, Dagmara & Nordahl-Hansen, Anders (2026). Advantages and disadvantages of noise-cancelling headphones for autistic students in educational settings. Research in Developmental Disabilities. ISSN 0891-4222. 173. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2026.105301. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This perspective article explores the various advantages and disadvantages of using noise-cancelling headphones in educational settings for autistic students with auditory sensory differences. Although noise-cancelling headphones can have several advantages for autistic students in educational settings, it is important that use of such assistive technological tools should not be implemented without a plan and tailoring at an individual level.

• Marentakis, Georgios & Monache, Stefano Delle (2025). Investigating Strategies in a Sound Design for Sustainability Exercise in an Educational Setting. I Prida, Daniel de la; Ramis, Jaime & Machimbarrena, María (Red.), Proceedings of the 11th Convention of the European Acoustics Association Forum Acusticum / EuroNoise 2025. European Acoustics Association (EAA). ISSN 9788487985355. s. 6033–6040. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Designing sound for sustainability is a vibrant research topic as researchers try to find ways to design sound in order to communicate sustainability values. We present here a study focusing on product sound design for sustainability. Students from a sound design course were asked to design sound for an electric device with a focus on communicating sustainability values. Here, we analyze and present our results based on a recently proposed framework for coding sound-driven design activities. We report on the elements which received most weight by the student designers and outline the creative solutions that were proposed. We use the framework to gather insight on how student designers considered different sound design aspects when developing their projects. We conclude by discussing possible methodological aspects that could be addressed more systematically in the future in an educational context.

• Marentakis, Georgios & Grace, Victoria (2025). Experimenter Effect in a Guided Breathing Experiment. I Pauletto, Sandra (Red.), Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Sonification of Health and Environmental Data (SoniHED 2025). Zenodo. ISSN 9789181061192. s. 1–7. doi: 10.5281/ZENODO.15032536. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Guided breathing is a widely used technique for relaxation and stress recovery and a core feature of many biofeedback applications. The design of feedback cues to support guided breathing has received significant attention and there are several proposals using different feedback modalities and their combinations. Studies that investigate the effectiveness of such designs are often done in the laboratory under supervision by the experimenter. Even though it is known that the presence of the experimenter is a factor that may influence participant performance, the extent to which such an effect appears in guided breathing experiments is unknown. To examine this possibility, we designed an experiment in which participants performed guided breathing in the laboratory with and without supervision by the experimenter. The results indicate that the presence of the experimenter affected the stress levels reported by participants and the efficacy of guided breathing which increased when participants performed the experiment unsupervised.

• Marentakis, Georgios & Mir, Ahmed Raza (2025). An investigation into the mapping of sonic parameters to pen movement in tablet tasks. I Seiça, Mariana & Wirfs-Brock, Jordan (Red.), AM '25: Proceedings of the 20th International Audio Mostly Conference. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ISSN 9798400720659. s. 337–343. doi: 10.1145/3771594.3771628. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This work examines user preferences for the design of real-time audio feedback while writing, sketching, and underlining on a tablet. Participants were provided with a GUI which allowed them to select between different mappings between stylus location, pressure, and acceleration and sonic parameters such as waveform type, frequency, amplitude, filter cutoff frequency and resonance. Subsequently, they provided their preference and responded to a short survey. Audio feedback had a positive impact on user engagement, especially while sketching and was considered to be an easy and engaging task. Mapping pen location to frequency and pen acceleration to cutoff frequency or resonance were preferred often. The results show that sound design should be specific to the task characteristics. Insights can be used for future studies into sound design for tasks performed with a stylus on a tablet.

• Louka, Michael Nicholas; Vakhajevitsj, Mahauri Hassan; Kedi, Krasniqi & Marentakis, Georgios (2025). Comparing Trend-Based and Direct HRV Biofeedback in an Adaptive Game Environment. I Seiça, Mariana & Wirfs-Brock, Jordan (Red.), AM '25: Proceedings of the 20th International Audio Mostly Conference. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ISSN 9798400720659. s. 373–378. doi: 10.1145/3771594.3771636. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  We have investigated the effectiveness of trend-based versus direct heart rate variability (HRV) auditory biofeedback in an adaptive game environment. Twelve participants played a Tetris-inspired game while listening to sonification of their HRV delivered periodically. This was either direct in which case the sound pitch was mapped to current HRV value or trend-based in which case the current HRV value was accompanied by the previous one to allow for trend comparison. HRV was estimated using a Polar H10 sensor while game difficulty was adapted in inverse relation to the trend in the estimated values. We found that trend-based HRV biofeedback significantly contributed to regulating HRV while game play, however, this did not translate in an improved game performance. Actually, game performance was better when the game was not adaptive likely due to the complexity of regulating HRV while playing. This indicates the increased complexity of adapting gameplay using biofeedback.

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• Herrebrøden, Marte Karoline; Skafle, Ingjerd; Marentakis, Georgios & Nordahl-Hansen, Anders (2026). Unlocking the Potential of Hearing Protection Devices in Supporting Inclusive School Environments for Autistic Students. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Herrebrøden, Marte Karoline; Skafle, Ingjerd; Marentakis, Georgios & Nordahl-Hansen, Anders (2026). Hearing Protection Devices for Autistic Students Sensitive to Auditory Stimuli: Enhancing School Inclusivity? doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15086.57923. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Autistic students with auditory sensitivity often experience sensory overload in school due to insufficient adaptation of the auditory environment (Price & Romualdez, 2025). These challenges can negatively affect learning, academic performance, and social-emotional well-being (Keith et al., 2019; Poulsen et al., 2025). Hearing protection devices (HPDs) show potential to support autistic students in managing sensory environments (Pfeiffer et al., 2019; Kwong et al., 2025). Educational professionals require sufficient competence to balance benefits and drawbacks of these technologies to support inclusive practices. Despite the widespread use of hearing protection devices among autistic students, there is limited empirical research and guidance to inform their appropriate use (Herrebrøden et al., 2025). Objective: To explore educational professionals’ experiences and perspectives on the use of HPDs for autistic students in school, including their competence and systemic approaches. The overall aim is to increase awareness of how educational environments and HPDs can support inclusive practices for students with auditory sensitivities.

• Herrebrøden, Marte Karoline; Marentakis, Georgios & Nordahl-Hansen, Anders (2025). School Professionals' Awareness and Perceptions of the Use of Noise-Cancelling Headphones for Autistic Students in Schools. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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