Use of Partial Stimulus Information by Cochlear Implant Patients and Normal-Hearing Listeners in Identifying Spoken Words: Some Preliminary Analyses1

An error analysis of the word recognition responses of cochlear implant patients and normal-hearing listeners was conducted to determine the types of partial information used by these two populations when they identify spoken words under auditory-alone and audiovisual conditions. The results revealed that different types of partial information are used by the two groups in identifying spoken words under audioalone or audiovisual presentation. Different types of partial information are also used in identifying words with different lexical properties. However, there were no significant interactions with hearing status, indicating that cochlear implant patients and normalhearing listeners identify spoken words in a similar manner. The information available to patients with cochlear implants preserves much of the partial information necessary for accurate spoken word recognition.