Thesis
Learning to Read Despite Auditory Challenge: Real-time Word Recognition in Cochlear Implant Users
University of Iowa
Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Iowa
Spring 2022
Abstract
Children who are born profoundly deaf and use cochlear implants (CIs) exhibit reading delays compared to their normal hearing peers. This could be because prelingually deafened CI users are consistently exposed to degraded auditory input, posing challenges to phonological processing, a critical skill for literacy success. Traditional assessments of phonological processing do not illuminate the underlying mechanisms behind these difficulties. However, real-time measures, like the Visual World Paradigm (VWP), can capture these processes in spoken word recognition at the millisecond level. In this task, as a spoken word unfolds, fixations to the target word and phonological competitors are measured over time as an index of how strongly listeners consider different options while they are making their decisions. Prior VWP studies suggest CI users present delayed lexical access and prolonged activation of phonological competitors. It is unknown how this might impact reading. Moreover, the VWP has been recently used to study written word recognition, raising the possibility that the differences in word recognition shown by CI users could apply to both types of words. In the current study, 15 adolescent CI users and 15 NH controls matched spoken and written words to pictures of the target word and phonological competitors. CI users revealed delayed and less-resolved target activation, as well as delayed and attenuated phonological competition. Critically, this was seen in both spoken words (where the input is degraded by the CI) and in written words where it is not. Therefore, degraded listening experiences lead listeners to wait to begin lexical access in both modalities. These results implicate the underlying mechanisms that may contribute to reading delays for prelingually deafened CI adolescents.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Learning to Read Despite Auditory Challenge: Real-time Word Recognition in Cochlear Implant Users
- Creators
- Evita Anne Woolsey
- Contributors
- Eileen Finnegan (Advisor) - University of IowaBob McMurray (Mentor) - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Project Type
- Honors Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Speech and Hearing Science
- Date degree season
- Spring 2022
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- 47 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2022 Evita Woolsey
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Honors Program; CLAS Honors Theses
- Record Identifier
- 9984274644202771
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