Can a Commercially Available Auditory Training Program Improve Audiovisual Speech Performance?

Purpose

The goal of this study was to determine whether hearing aids in combination with computer-based auditory training improve audiovisual (AV) performance compared with the use of hearing aids alone.

Method

Twenty-four participants were randomized into an experimental group (hearing aids plus ReadMyQuips [RMQ] training) and a control group (hearing aids only). The Multimodal Lexical Sentence Test for Adults (Kirk et al., 2012) was used to measure auditory-only (AO) and AV speech perception performance at three signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Participants were tested at the time of hearing aid fitting (pretest), after 4 weeks of hearing aid use (posttest I), and again after 4 weeks of RMQ training (posttest II).

Results

Results did not reveal an effect of training. As expected, interactions were found between (a) modality (AO vs. AV) and SNR and (b) test (pretest vs. posttests) and SNR.

Conclusion

Data do not show a significant effect of RMQ training on AO or AV performance as measured using the Multimodal Lexical Sentence Test for Adults.

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