AUDITORY TRAINING AND TALKER VARIABILITY

描述（由申请人提供）：接受助听器或其他辅助听力设备的成年人通常对他们获得的有限好处不满意。因此，许多助听器使用者寻求听觉训练来提高他们的听力能力。这种培训的目标是提供长期的好处，这种好处超出了培训的时间，并且可以推广到以前没有遇到过的材料和演讲者。不幸的是，很少有系统的评估听力训练对听力表现的改善有多好，以及这种改善是否能长期保持。以前的研究经常受到方法学上的限制，如样本量小，缺乏对照组，临床医生资质的可变性，测试方案的局限性，或这些因素的某些组合。这个项目将是第一个大规模的纵向研究听觉训练的有效性，比较训练方法，并确定预测效益的患者变量。第一个具体目标是，70名成年助听器使用者将在8周的时间内接受16小时的电脑传统单语者听觉训练。将他们的语音识别表现与70名助听器使用者的对照组进行4次比较：训练前、训练后立即、训练后3个月和训练后6个月。表现将通过辅音，单词，句子，以及可能最重要的，因为它们具有高面部效度的话语刺激来评估。对照组将接受质量和数量上类似的训练，尽管是以非听觉形式进行的。对于第二个具体目标，将评估一种新的听觉训练方法的有效性。新一组的70名成年助听器使用者将完成16小时的电脑多语听力训练，并完成与其他参与者相同的测试时间表。对记忆和第二语言学习文献的研究表明，多语教学比单语教学在提高听力方面更有效。对于第三个具体目标，将确定预测长期，可推广的益处的因素，例如助听器使用的持续时间。该项目汇集了听力学、第二语言习得和认知科学领域的专家。它提供了一个独特的机会来记录听觉训练的效果，改进现有的听觉训练程序，并对哪些患者最有可能受益进行预测。在美国有超过3100万人有听力损失。许多人即使在接受了适当的放大后也会遇到听力困难。本研究的目的是评估听觉训练是否能提高听力损失者的听力表现，并比较两种不同的训练模式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Adults who receive hearing aids or other assistive listening devices are often dissatisfied with the limited benefits that they receive. As a result, many hearing aid users seek auditory training to enhance their listening abilities. The goal of this training is to provide long-term benefits that extend beyond the duration of training and that generalize to material and speakers not previously encountered. Unfortunately, there has been little systematic evaluation of how well auditory training leads to improvements in listening performance and whether improvements are maintained over time. Previous studies often suffer from methodological limitations, such as small sample size, absence of control groups, variability in clinician aptitude, limitations in testing protocols, or some combination of these. This project will be the first large-scale study to address the effectiveness of auditory training longitudinally, to compare training methods, and to identify patient variables that predict benefit. For the first specific aim, 70 adult hearing aid users will receive 16 hours of computerized traditional single-talker auditory training during an 8-week period. Their speech recognition performance will be compared to that of a control group of 70 hearing aid users on 4 occasions: pre-training, immediate post- training, 3 months following training, and 6 months following training. Performance will be evaluated with consonant, word, sentence, and perhaps most importantly because of their high face validity, discourse stimuli. The control group will receive qualitatively and quantitatively similar training, albeit in a non-auditory form. For the second specific aim, the effectiveness of a novel method of auditory training will be evaluated. A new group of 70 adult hearing aid users will complete 16 hours of computerized multiple-talker auditory training and complete the same testing schedule as the other participants. Research from memory and second language learning literature leads to the prediction that multiple-talker instruction will be more effective than single-talker instruction in improving listening performance. For the third specific aim, factors that predict long-term, generalizable benefit, such as duration of hearing aid use, will be identified. This project brings together expertise from the fields of audiology, second language acquisition, and cognitive science. It represents a unique opportunity to document the efficacy of auditory training, to improve upon existing auditory training procedures, and to develop predictions about which patients are most likely to receive benefit. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Over thirty-one million persons in the United States have hearing loss. Many experience listening difficulties, even after receiving appropriate amplification. The goals of this project are to evaluate whether auditory training can enhance listening performance in persons who have hearing loss and to compare two different training paradigms.