Speech intelligibility in noise for adult and children users of cochlear implants.

Abstract

Even though high levels of speech understanding in quiet can be developed postimplantation, speech recognition in noise is an especially challenging task for cochlear implant (CI) users. This study examined whether adult and children CI users benefit from signal clarity and contextual‐semantic information to improve their speech recognition in noise. Ten adult and ten children CI users, and ten adults and ten children with normal hearing participated in sentence‐in‐noise listening tests. They heard sentences in which final word varied in predictability, i.e., high versus low semantic context, produced by one female and one male talker in conversational or clear speaking styles. The goal was to assess the effect of age and the length of experience with using cochlear implants on the ability to utilize the compensatory information at higher levels of speech processing independently and in combination with the acoustic‐phonetic enhancements in speech perception. This research will allow us to explore the interaction between lower‐level sensory and higher‐level cognitive factors that affect speech processing in noise for adults and children with cochlear implants. The results of this study add to our current understanding of the development of speech recognition for individuals with cochlear implants and with normal hearing.