Efficacy of Multiple-Talker Phonetic Identification Training in Postlingually Deafened Cochlear Implant Listeners

This study implemented a pretest-intervention-posttest design to examine whether multiple-talker identification training enhanced phonetic perception of the /ba/-/da/ and /wa/-/ja/ contrasts in adult listeners who were deafened postlingually and have cochlear implants (CIs).

Nine CI recipients completed 8 hours of identification training using a custom-designed training package. Perception of speech produced by familiar talkers (talkers used during training) and unfamiliar talkers (talkers not used during training) was measured before and after training. Five additional untrained CI recipients completed identical pre- and posttests over the same time course as the trainees to control for procedural learning effects.

Perception of the speech contrasts produced by the familiar talkers significantly improved for the trained CI listeners, and effects of perceptual learning transferred to unfamiliar talkers. Such training-induced significant changes were not observed in the control group.

The data provide initial evidence of the efficacy of the multiple-talker identification training paradigm for CI users who were deafened postlingually. This pattern of results is consistent with enhanced phonemic categorization of the trained speech sounds.