ASHA Annual Convention

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ASHA Annual Convention Session 0432 Auditory
Training for Improving Language Skills
Dave Moore MRC Institute of Hearing
Research University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD
www.ihr.mrc.ac.uk
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Outline

• Auditory training improves listening

• Most training occurs quickly

• Training on difficult tasks works best

• Training includes both bottom-up and top-down
  components

• Training generalizes to untrained stimuli

• Training improves essential language skills

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Auditory training improves listening
How do we test training?
Computer generates a series of sounds Listener
picks the odd one out If correct task gets
more difficult for next series (trial) If
incorrect task gets easier
Interval
I
II
III
Frequency
Tones (e.g.)
low
high
low
Time

• We have used this task Frequency Discrimination
  (FD) to study the rules of auditory learning
• FD is relevant to speech perception
• FD is poor in many learning impaired children
• FD trains easily and substantially

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Auditory training improves listening
Each line shows a separate (adult) trainee
Adult volunteers practiced for 3500 trials (about
3½ hours over 4 days) FD initially varied
greatly, despite all listeners having normal
hearing FD improved most in those who started
poorly
(from Amitay, Hawkey and Moore, Percept.
Psychophys. 2005)
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Most training occurs quickly
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More than 90 of the FD learning occurred within
1 hour.
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2
Tone difference ()
1
0.5
0.2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
block
Practice block
Frequency
Intensity
400
Intensity (moved)
Training in a control group started with
intensity discrimination (ID, red), then changed
to FD after 2 blocks. Early ID training did not
improve FD.
300
Sensitivity (?F)
200
100
1
2
3
4
5
6
Block (200 trials/block)
(from Hawkey, Amitay, and Moore, Nature Neurosci.
2004)
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Training on difficult tasks works best
0.5
0.4
Even an impossibly difficult training task (all 3
tones the same!) produced a high level of learning
0.3
Amount of FD learning
0.2
0.1
0
Very difficult
Very easy
Impossible
Difficult
Task difficulty
Adult volunteers were tested for FD before and
after 800 trials of training FD was improved
about equally by tasks ranging from moderately
difficult to impossible FD was improved less well
by tasks that were very easy (every trial
correct)
(from Amitay, Irwin and Moore, Nature Neurosci.
2006)
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Training includes bottom-up and top-down
components
0.5
0.4
Training received input from sharpening of tuning
(bottom-up), task- and condition-specific
attention, and general arousal (top-down)
0.3
Amount of FD learning
0.2
0.1
0
FD Training (1 kHz)
No training
Tetris (no sound)
Passive (1 kHz)
FD Training (4 kHz)
Training task
Adults were tested at 1 kHz for FD before and
after 800 trials of training (. . . or equivalent
time without training) FD was improved by all
training tasks, including playing Tetris without
sound FD was improved less well by training on
stimuli other than the 1 kHz tone used for testing
(from Amitay, Irwin and Moore, Nature Neurosci.
2006)
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Training generalizes to untrained stimuli
Noise vocoded speech (6 channel)
Training with vocoded speech improved performance
on previously unheard vocoded sentences (DDC).
When feedback of a clear (C) sentence was
interposed between distorted (D) sentences,
performance improved further
(from M.H. Davis et al, J Exp Psychol Gen. 2005)
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Training improves essential language skills
Multidimensional training (FastForword)
see scilearn.com
Training improved reading skills in dyslexic
(DYS) but not in normal-reading (NR) children.
8-12 y.o. NR and DYS children were trained for
46.5 hours over 6 weeks Word listening
(phonological awareness) was measured before and
after training using the Woodcock-Johnson reading
mastery test.
(from Tallal, Nature Revs Neurosci 2004 modified
from Temple et al PNAS 2003)
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Training improves essential language skills
Phoneme discrimination training (Phonomena)
see mindweavers.com
Training improved phonological awareness (rhyme,
alliteration, Spoonerisms, non-word reading) by
2.3 years.
8-9 y.o. mainsteam children were trained on
phoneme discrimination only for 6 hours over 4
weeks Word listening (phonological awareness) was
measured before and after training using the
Phonological Assessment Battery
(NFER-Nelson) Training was maintained during 5
weeks before Delayed testing
(Moore, Rosenberg and Coleman, Brain Lang 2005,
94, 72)
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Summary

• Auditory training improves listening

• Most training occurs quickly

• Training on difficult tasks works best

• Training includes both bottom-up and top-down
  components

• Training generalizes to untrained stimuli

• Training improves essential language skills

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www.mindweavers.com
www.ihr.mrc.ac.uk

• Auditory training
• (lab)
• Sygal Amitay
• Dave Hawkey
• Amy Irving

• Auditory training
• (field)
• John Coleman
• Joy Rosenberg