Short-term word-learning rate in children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss in limited and extended high-frequency bandwidths.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined children's word learning in limited and extended high-frequency bandwidth conditions. These conditions represent typical listening environments for children with hearing loss (HL) and children with normal hearing (NH), respectively.


METHODS
Thirty-six children with NH and 14 children with moderate-to-severe HL served as participants. All of the children were between 8 and 10 years of age and were assigned to either the limited or the extended bandwidth conditions. Five nonsense words were paired with 5 novel pictures. Word learning was assessed in a single session, multitrial, learning paradigm lasting approximately 15 min. Learning rate was defined as the number of exposures necessary to achieve 70% correct performance.


RESULTS
Analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for bandwidth but not for group. A Bandwidth x Group interaction was also not observed. In this short-term learning paradigm, the children in both groups required 3 times as many exposures to learn each new word in the limited bandwidth condition compared with the extended bandwidth condition.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that children with HL may benefit from extended high-frequency amplification when learning new words and for other long-term auditory processes.
Pittman
Andrea L
AL
Department of Speech and Hearing Science, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 870102, Tempe, AZ 85287-0102, USA. andrea.pittman@asu.edu
D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010700:Phonetics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary