Carine Signoret

The Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model: theoretical, empirical, and clinical advances

Working memory is important for online language processing during conversation. We use it to maintain relevant information, to inhibit or ignore irrelevant information, and to attend to conversation selectively. Working memory helps us to keep track of and actively participate in conversation, including taking turns and following the gist. This paper examines the Ease of Language Understanding model (i.e., the ELU model, Rönnberg, 2003; Rönnberg et al., 2008) in light of new behavioral and neural findings concerning the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in uni-modal and bimodal language processing. The new ELU model is a meaning prediction system that depends on phonological and semantic interactions in rapid implicit and slower explicit processing mechanisms that both depend on WMC albeit in different ways. It is based on findings that address the relationship between WMC and (a) early attention processes in listening to speech, (b) signal processing in hearing aids and its effects on short-term memory, (c) inhibition of speech maskers and its effect on episodic long-term memory, (d) the effects of hearing impairment on episodic and semantic long-term memory, and finally, (e) listening effort. New predictions and clinical implications are outlined. Comparisons with other WMC and speech perception models are made.

Hearing impairment, cognition and speech understanding: exploratory factor analyses of a comprehensive test battery for a group of hearing aid users, the n200 study

Abstract Objective: The aims of the current n200 study were to assess the structural relations between three classes of test variables (i.e. HEARING, COGNITION and aided speech-in-noise OUTCOMES) and to describe the theoretical implications of these relations for the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model. Study sample: Participants were 200 hard-of-hearing hearing-aid users, with a mean age of 60.8 years. Forty-three percent were females and the mean hearing threshold in the better ear was 37.4 dB HL. Design: LEVEL1 factor analyses extracted one factor per test and/or cognitive function based on a priori conceptualizations. The more abstract LEVEL 2 factor analyses were performed separately for the three classes of test variables. Results: The HEARING test variables resulted in two LEVEL 2 factors, which we labelled SENSITIVITY and TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE; the COGNITIVE variables in one COGNITION factor only, and OUTCOMES in two factors, NO CONTEXT and CONTEXT. COGNITION predicted the NO CONTEXT factor to a stronger extent than the CONTEXT outcome factor. TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE and SENSITIVITY were associated with COGNITION and all three contributed significantly and independently to especially the NO CONTEXT outcome scores (R2 = 0.40). Conclusions: All LEVEL 2 factors are important theoretically as well as for clinical assessment.

Similarities in the neural signature for the processing of behaviorally categorized and uncategorized speech sounds

Recent human behavioral studies have shown semantic and/or lexical processing for stimuli presented below the auditory perception threshold. Here, we investigated electroencephalographic responses to words, pseudo‐words and complex sounds, in conditions where phonological and lexical categorizations were behaviorally successful (categorized stimuli) or unsuccessful (uncategorized stimuli). Data showed a greater decrease in low‐beta power at left‐hemisphere temporal electrodes for categorized non‐lexical sounds (complex sounds and pseudo‐words) than for categorized lexical sounds (words), consistent with the signature of a failure in lexical access. Similar differences between lexical and non‐lexical sounds were observed for uncategorized stimuli, although these stimuli did not yield evoked potentials or theta activity. The results of the present study suggest that behaviorally uncategorized stimuli were processed at the lexical level, and provide evidence of the neural bases of the results observed in previous behavioral studies investigating auditory perception in the absence of stimulus awareness.

Editorial: The Role of Working Memory and Executive Function in Communication under Adverse Conditions.

Communication is fundamental for social participation with communication difficulties often leading to social isolation and depression. Nevertheless, everyday communication is often hindered either by internal factors such as sensory loss, or by external factors including the background noise that commonly occurs in places where people meet, such as restaurants, schools, and railway stations. In such adverse conditions, working memory and executive functions have been proposed to play a critical role in communication. Thus, the role of cognition in hearing is a central theme in the field of Cognitive Hearing Science and has crystalized as one of the main themes of this research topic. This is reflected in papers reporting the role of cognition in hearing in persons with varying sensory and cognitive status and varying degrees of language knowledge, over the lifespan. Another theme represented in this topic is rehabilitation in the form of amplification and training. Importantly, the broad remit of the research topic is reflected in papers addressing cognition and communication in children with sensory and cognitive issues as well as adults and children who are profoundly deaf and use sign language to communicate. Apart from the impressive number of empirical studies, there are several theoretical contributions to the field.

Combined Effects of Form- and Meaning-Based Predictability on Perceived Clarity of Speech

The perceptual clarity of speech is influenced by more than just the acoustic quality of the sound; it also depends on contextual support. For example, a degraded sentence is perceived to be clearer when the content of the speech signal is provided with matching text (i.e., form-based predictability) before hearing the degraded sentence. Here, we investigate whether sentence-level semantic coherence (i.e., meaning-based predictability), enhances perceptual clarity of degraded sentences, and if so, whether the mechanism is the same as that underlying enhancement by matching text. We also ask whether form- and meaning-based predictability are related to individual differences in cognitive abilities. Twenty participants listened to spoken sentences that were either clear or degraded by noise vocoding and rated the clarity of each item. The sentences had either high or low semantic coherence. Each spoken word was preceded by the homologous printed word (matching text), or by a meaningless letter string (nonmatching text). Cognitive abilities were measured with a working memory test. Results showed that perceptual clarity was significantly enhanced both by matching text and by semantic coherence. Importantly, high coherence enhanced the perceptual clarity of the degraded sentences even when they were preceded by matching text, suggesting that the effects of form- and meaning-based predictions on perceptual clarity are independent and additive. However, when working memory capacity indexed by the Size-Comparison Span Test was controlled for, only form-based predictions enhanced perceptual clarity, and then only at some sound quality levels, suggesting that prediction effects are to a certain extent dependent on cognitive abilities.

Learning to learn to expand freedom in choices

Learning is related to knowledge that is shared between teacher and students. Whatever the use of traditional or modern teaching-learning methods, the students learn: they have access to new inform ...