AUDITORY LEARNING
The effects of auditory training on human communication skills: behavior and physiology
| Coordinatore | UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA
Organization address
address: "Mount Carmel, Abba Khoushi Blvd." contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | Israel [IL] |
| Totale costo | 100˙000 € |
| EC contributo | 100˙000 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG |
| Funding Scheme | MC-IRG |
| Anno di inizio | 2009 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2009-03-01 - 2013-02-28 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA
Organization address
address: "Mount Carmel, Abba Khoushi Blvd." contact info |
IL (HAIFA) | coordinator | 0.00 |
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'Human communication relies on an array of auditory skills ranging from basic encoding of sound to auditory memory and attention. Improving these skills could benefit many individuals who either attempt to improve their communication skills (e.g., by learning a foreign language) or suffer from communication disorders. However, improving auditory skills remains a challenge because the mechanisms underlying auditory learning are poorly understood. In particular it is not clear whether learning simple auditory skills can generalize to more complex ones. To address this issue, we will compare the outcomes of different auditory training regimens in the general population and between individuals with and without persistent reading and learning difficulties. We hypothesize that learning will modify both general and specific auditory mechanisms. However, we expect that while the modification of specific encoding mechanisms will be closely related to the nature of the stimuli used in training, general mechanisms like attention will be similarly affected by different training programs. To this end, students learning English as a second language will train on one of three training regimens (the first 2 are commercially available) emphasizing either general listening skills (LACE), phonemic discriminations (Phonomena), or basic auditory skills. Cognitive, perceptual and neural outcomes of training will be compared between the trained groups as well as to naïve controls. In addition to the theoretical implications of the proposed study, it is expected to provide clinicians, educators and the general public information regarding the suitability of the studied training regimens to specific clinical or educational purposes. The study’s relevance to the Work program lies in the central question it addresses in Auditory Neuroscience and the way it will facilitate the (re)integration of the coordinator to the EU/Israeli scientific community after working in the US.'
Descrizione progetto (Article)
Mechanisms associated with auditory learning are as yet not very well understood, rendering the improvement of these skills a complex challenge. One important question that needs to be answered is whether or not the learning of simple auditory skills can be applied to more complex ones.
The project 'The effects of auditory training on human communication skills: Behavior and physiology' (AUDITORY LEARNING) was established to compare outcomes of various auditory training regimens on learning in real-life (i.e. untrained) conditions. The study is relevant to two major populations: individuals with age-related hearing loss and adults learning a new language.
Research revealed that across regimens there is greater learning in trained conditions. While basic auditory training resulted in the least amount of generalisation to non-trained materials, 'ecological' (real-life tasks and materials) and speech training showed similar patterns of generalisation.
As such, the project team concluded that the latter two types of training are likely more beneficial in education and rehabilitation settings. The findings supporting this have been published in two separate articles in the journals Cerebral Cortex and PLOS ONE. A review published in Vision Research discusses the reasons for limited amounts of generalisation following basic auditory training. Additional peer-reviewed publications outline other factors associated with learning and generalisation.
AUDITORY LEARNING outcomes indicate the potential of computerised training for improving speech perception under certain conditions. While additional studies should be conducted in this line of inquiry, the project has advanced knowledge on ways to improve general learning and rehabilitation approaches.