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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 1:3 1996
© 1996 Oxford University Press

Verbal Information-processing Capabilities and Cochlear Implants: Implications for Preoperative Predictors of Speech Understanding

Björn Lyxell, Jan Andersson, Stig Arlinger, Göran Bredberg, Henrik Harder and Jerker Rönnberg

Linköping University Linköping, Sweden

In this study, we examined preoperative verbal cognitive capacity in 11 deafened adults who were cochlear implant candidates and reexamined level of speech understanding after 6–8 months' experience with the implant. Verbal cognitive performance in the implant group was compared in a group of normal hearing subjects and in a nonimplanted group of deafened adults. The three groups performed on par with each other with one exception: The individuals in the cochlear implant group and the nonimplanted group of deafened adults performed significantly worse than those of normal hearing in tasks in which use of internal speech is a key feature (i.e., rhyme judgement and lexical decision tasks). Postoperative observations of the implanted individuals' level of speech understanding suggest that it is possible to predict the level of speech understanding by means of a preoperative cognitive assessment. The characteristics of three verbal cognitive abilities proved to be critical indicators of 6–8 months' postoperative outcome: internal speech functioning, speed of verbal information processing, and working memory capacity—the first factor proved the most decisive. We discuss the results with respect to direct versus indirect predictors of outcomes from cochlear implant operations and the effect of auditory deprivation on deafened adults' capability to process auditory information.

Correspondence should be sent to Björn Lyxell, Department of Education and Psychology, Linköping University, S-581 83 Linköping, Sweden (e-mail: BLY{at}IPP.LIU.SE).


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