Cognitive predictors of improvements in adults' spoken word recognition six months after cochlear implant activation

This study investigated whether cognitive measures obtained prior to cochlear implant surgery activation could predict improvements in spoken word recognition in adult cochlear implant recipients 6 months after activation. In addition to noncognitive factors identified by previous studies (i.e. younger age, shorter duration of hearing loss), the present results indicated that improvement in spoken word recognition was associated with higher verbal learning scores and better verbal working memory. Contrary to expectation, neither general cognitive ability nor processing speed was significantly correlated with outcome at 6 months. Multiple regression analyses revealed that a combination of verbal learning scores and lip-reading skill accounted for nearly 72% of the individual differences in improvement in spoken word recognition (i.e. the variance in spoken word recognition scores at 6 months that remained unexplained after controlling for baseline spoken word recognition scores). These findings have relevance for research on auditory processing with cochlear implants as well as implications for clinical interventions.