Abstract
This study explores the effect of hearing status on adaptation to a bite block in vowel productions of normal hearing (NH) adults and adults who use cochlear implants (CI). CI speakers are tested prior to and following experience with the implant. Different sized bite blocks (BB) are used to create unusual degrees of mandibular opening for vowel productions in an /hVd/ context (had, head, heed, hid, and hod). Four conditions are elicited from each NH and CI speaker: (1) no BB with hearing (CI processor on), (2) no BB with no hearing (NH speakers with masking noise and CI speakers with processor off), (3) BB with no hearing, and (4) BB with hearing. Prior to fitting with the implant, CI speakers are tested without hearing in two conditions: (1) no BB and (2) BB. Spectra of the vowel productions are analyzed for dispersion of tokens in the F1–F2 plane in the four conditions. Pilot results support the hypothesis that prior to fitting, CI users are less able to adapt to perturbations than NH speakers and that experience with a CI improves adaptation. The current study is exploring this result further with larger groups of subjects. [Research supported by NIH.]
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