Dept. of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Dept. of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 29;15(1):7382. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51514-3.
Word recognition is a gateway to language, linking sound to meaning. Prior work has characterized its cognitive mechanisms as a form of competition between similar-sounding words. However, it has not identified dimensions along which this competition varies across people. We sought to identify these dimensions in a population of cochlear implant users with heterogenous backgrounds and audiological profiles, and in a lifespan sample of people without hearing loss. Our study characterizes the process of lexical competition using the Visual World Paradigm. A principal component analysis reveals that people's ability to resolve lexical competition varies along three dimensions that mirror prior small-scale studies. These dimensions capture the degree to which lexical access is delayed ("Wait-and-See"), the degree to which competition fully resolves ("Sustained-Activation"), and the overall rate of activation. Each dimension is predicted by a different auditory skills and demographic factors (onset of deafness, age, cochlear implant experience). Moreover, each dimension predicts outcomes (speech perception in quiet and noise, subjective listening success) over and above auditory fidelity. Higher degrees of Wait-and-See and Sustained-Activation predict poorer outcomes. These results suggest the mechanisms of word recognition vary along a few underlying dimensions which help explain variable performance among listeners encountering auditory challenge.
单词识别是语言的入口，将声音与意义联系起来。先前的研究将其认知机制描述为相似发音的单词之间的一种竞争形式。然而，它没有确定在不同人群中这种竞争变化的维度。我们试图在具有不同背景和听力学特征的人工耳蜗使用者人群以及无听力损失的终身样本中确定这些维度。我们的研究使用视觉世界范式来描述词汇竞争的过程。主成分分析表明，人们解决词汇竞争的能力沿着三个维度变化，这与先前的小规模研究一致。这些维度反映了词汇访问延迟的程度（“等待观察”）、竞争完全解决的程度（“持续激活”）以及整体激活率。每个维度都由不同的听觉技能和人口统计学因素（耳聋发作、年龄、人工耳蜗经验）预测。此外，每个维度都预测了听觉保真度以外的结果（安静和嘈杂环境中的言语感知、主观聆听效果）。较高的“等待观察”和“持续激活”程度预示着较差的结果。这些结果表明，单词识别的机制沿着几个潜在的维度变化，这些维度有助于解释在遇到听觉挑战时听众表现的变化。
