PHONOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION AND SPEECH UNDERSTANDING WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS IN DEAFENED ADULTS

In the present study cognitive performance in 15 deafened adult cochle ar implant candidates was examined and related to level of speech unde rstanding after 12 months of experience with the implant. The implant group performed on par with normal hearing controls in all cognitive t asks used in the study with one exception: Performance was significant ly lower in cognitive tasks where use of a phonological representation of sound is a key task-demand. Observations of the implanted individu als' level of speech understanding indicate that only those individual s who, pre-operatively, were in possession of phonological representat ions comparable to that of normal hearing could follow and understand a speaker that was out of sight. The results are discussed with respec t to (a) deterioration in the phonological representation of sounds as a fucntion of absence of external auditory stimulation, and (b) the r ole of cognitive factors in predicting success in speech understanding with the implant.