1. Cognitive hearing science and ease of language understanding
- Author
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Jerker, Rönnberg, Emil, Holmer, and Mary, Rudner
- Subjects
Cognition ,Memory, Long-Term ,Memory, Short-Term ,Speech Perception ,Humans ,Attention ,Hearing Loss - Abstract
The current update of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model evaluates the predictive and postdictive aspects of speech understanding and communication.The aspects scrutinised concern: (1) Signal distortion and working memory capacity (WMC), (2) WMC and early attention mechanisms, (3) WMC and use of phonological and semantic information, (4) hearing loss, WMC and long-term memory (LTM), (5) WMC and effort, and (6) the ELU model and sign language. Study Samples: Relevant literature based on own or others' data was used.Expectations 1-4 are supported whereas 5-6 are constrained by conceptual issues and empirical data. Further strands of research were addressed, focussing on WMC and contextual use, and on WMC deployment in relation to hearing status. A wider discussion of task demands, concerning, for example, inference-making and priming, is also introduced and related to the overarching ELU functions of prediction and postdiction. Finally, some new concepts and models that have been inspired by the ELU-framework are presented and discussed.The ELU model has been productive in generating empirical predictions/expectations, the majority of which have been confirmed. Nevertheless, new insights and boundary conditions need to be experimentally tested to further shape the model.
- Published
- 2019