Research Article

Environmental sound perception of cochlear implant users

  1. Valerie Looi*,
  2. Janna Arnephy

Article first published online: 30 OCT 2009

DOI: 10.1002/cii.428

Additional Information

How to Cite

Looi, V. and Arnephy, J. (2009), Environmental sound perception of cochlear implant users. Cochlear Implants Int.. doi: 10.1002/cii.428

Author Information

  1. Department of Communication Disorders, The University of Canterbury, New Zealand

*Department of Communication Disorders, The University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8020, New Zealand. Tel: +64 (3) 3642987 (ext. 3051). Fax: +64 (3) 3642760

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 30 OCT 2009
  2. Article first published online: 30 OCT 2009

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Keywords:

  • cochlear implants;
  • environmental sounds;
  • quality of life;
  • perception;
  • perceptual test

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (1) to develop a new test of environmental sound perception, the Environmental Sounds Perception Test (EST), (2) to compare the performance of experienced cochlear implant (CI) recipients with that of age-equivalent normally hearing (NH) listeners using this new test, and (3) to pilot test its clinical use as a pre-to-post assessment tool. The closed-set EST consisted of 45 different sounds classified into nine categories, with each sound being represented by two different tokens. The results showed that the NH participants scored significantly higher than the experienced CI users (p < 0.001). For the pre-to-post CI group, higher scores were obtained post-surgery with the CI; this difference was approaching significance (p = 0.068). Overall these results suggest that CI recipients are poorer than NH participants on the EST but better than hearing-aid users with a similar level of hearing loss. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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