Can Audio-Visual Integration Improve with Training?
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Date
2010-06
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
The integration of visual cues and auditory speech cues is a process used by listeners in both normal and compromised listening situations. Audio+visual integration of speech appears to be independent of the ability to process auditory-only or visual-only speech cues. Grant and Seitz (1998) argued for independence of this process based on the fact that integration could not be easily predicted by auditory-alone or visual-alone performance. Gariety (2009) and James (2009) provided additional support for this argument. In their studies, training on degraded auditory speech syllables under auditory-only conditions improved auditory performance but not audio+visual performance. The question remains whether integration itself is an ability that can be trained. In the present study, five listeners received ten training sessions in the audio+visual condition with degraded speech syllables similar to those used by Shannon et al. (1995). A comparison of pre-training to post-training scores showed little to no improvement in auditory-only and visual-only identification, but a substantial improvement in audio+visual performance. These results provide further support for the idea that integration is an independent process, and argue for the incorporation of audio+visual integration training into aural rehabilitation programs.
Description
1st place award at the 15th annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum in the Speech and Hearing/Business/Education category
Keywords
audio+visual training, speech integration, degraded auditory signal