Speech Perception Training in Children: The Retention of Benefits and Booster Training.

Objectives: Speech perception training can be a highly effective intervention to improve perception and language abilities in children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Most studies of speech perception training, however, only measure gains immediately following training. Only a minority of cases include a follow-up assessment after a period without training.

Word learning and lexicalization in a second language: Evidence from the Prime lexicality effect in masked form priming.

In a masked form priming lexical decision task, orthographically related word primes cause null or inhibitory priming relative to unrelated controls because of lexical competition between primes and targets, whereas orthographically related nonword primes lead to facilitation because nonwords are not lexically represented and hence do not evoke lexical competition. This prime lexicality effect (PLE) has been used as an index of new word lexicalization in the developing lexicon by using to-be-learned words and their orthographic neighbors as primes and targets, respectively. Experiment 1 confirmed an inhibitory effect of -46 ms among native English speakers and faciliatory effects of 52 ms by Japanese English learners without critical word training.

Vocabulary Acquisition as a By-Product of Meaning-Oriented Auditory Training for Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

Purpose A meaning-oriented auditory training program for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (d/hh) was assessed with regard to its efficacy in promoting novel word learning. Method While administering the auditory training program, one of the authors (Elizabeth Mauzé) observed that children were learning words they previously did not know. Therefore, we systematically assessed vocabulary gains among 16 children.

Teaching Children With Hearing Loss to Recognize Speech: Gains Made With Computer-Based Auditory and/or Speechreading Training.

Objectives: Transfer appropriate processing (TAP) refers to a general finding that training gains are maximized when training and testing are conducted under the same conditions. The present study tested the extent to which TAP applies to speech perception training in children with hearing loss. Specifically, we assessed the benefits of computer-based speech perception training games for enhancing children's speech recognition by comparing three training groups: auditory training (AT), audiovisual training (AVT), and a combination of these two (AT/AVT).

Auditory Training for Adults Who Have Hearing Loss: A Comparison of Spaced Versus Massed Practice Schedules.

Purpose: The spacing effect in human memory research refers to situations in which people learn items better when they study items in spaced intervals rather than massed intervals. This investigation was conducted to compare the efficacy of meaning-oriented auditory training when administered with a spaced versus massed practice schedule.

Method: Forty-seven adult hearing aid users received 16 hr of auditory training.

The Effects of Meaning-Based Auditory Training on Behavioral Measures of Perceptual Effort in Individuals with Impaired Hearing.

There has been considerable interest in measuring the perceptual effort required to understand speech, as well as to identify factors that might reduce such effort. In the current study, we investigated whether, in addition to improving speech intelligibility, auditory training also could reduce perceptual or listening effort. Perceptual effort was assessed using a modified version of the n-back memory task in which participants heard lists of words presented without background noise and were asked to continually update their memory of the three most recently presented words.

Auditory Training With Frequent Communication Partners.

Purpose: Individuals with hearing loss engage in auditory training to improve their speech recognition. They typically practice listening to utterances spoken by unfamiliar talkers but never to utterances spoken by their most frequent communication partner (FCP)-speech they most likely desire to recognize-under the assumption that familiarity with the FCP's speech limits potential gains. This study determined whether auditory training with the speech of an individual's FCP, in this case their spouse, would lead to enhanced recognition of their spouse's speech.

Task- and Talker-Specific Gains in Auditory Training.

Purpose: This investigation focused on generalization of outcomes for auditory training by examining the effects of task and/or talker overlap between training and at test.

Method: Adults with hearing loss completed 12 hr of meaning-oriented auditory training and were placed in a group that trained on either multiple talkers or a single talker. A control group also completed 12 hr of training in American Sign Language.

Using patient perceptions of relative benefit and enjoyment to assess auditory training.

Background: Patients seeking treatment for hearing-related communication difficulties are often disappointed with the eventual outcomes, even after they receive a hearing aid or a cochlear implant. One approach that audiologists have used to improve communication outcomes is to provide auditory training (AT), but compliance rates for completing AT programs are notoriously low.

Purpose: The primary purpose of the investigation was to conduct a patient-based evaluation of the benefits of an AT program, I Hear What You Mean, in order to determine how the AT experience might be improved.

Tailoring auditory training to patient needs with single and multiple talkers: transfer-appropriate gains on a four-choice discrimination test.

Objective: Our long-term objective is to develop an auditory training program that will enhance speech recognition in those situations where patients most want improvement. As a first step, the current investigation trained participants using either a single talker or multiple talkers to determine if auditory training leads to transfer-appropriate gains.

Design: The experiment implemented a 2 × 2 × 2 mixed design, with training condition as a between-participants variable and testing interval and test version as repeated-measures variables.

Stimulus variability and the phonetic relevance hypothesis: effects of variability in speaking style, fundamental frequency, and speaking rate on spoken word identification.

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of trial-to-trial variations in speaking style, fundamental frequency, and speaking rate on identification of spoken words. In addition, the experiments investigated whether any effects of stimulus variability would be modulated by phonetic confusability (i.e.