1st Edition

Artificial Hearing, Natural Speech Cochlear Implants, Speech Production, and the Expectations of a High-Tech Society

By Joanna Hart Lowenstein Copyright 2007
    160 Pages
    by Routledge

    160 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book explores the interface between speech perception and production through a longitudinal acoustic analysis of the speech of postlingually deaf adults with cochlear implants (electrode and computer prostheses for the inner ear in cases of nerve deafness). The methodology is based on the work of Joseph Perkell at MIT, replicating and extending analysis to subjects with modern digital cochlear implants and processor technology. Lowenstein also examines how cochlear implants are portrayed in dramatic and documentary television programs, the scientific accuracy of those portrayals, and what expectations might be taken away by viewers, particularly given modern society's view that technology can overcome the frailties of the human body.

    List of Tables

    List of Figures

    Acknowledgments

    1. Introduction

    2. Background

    3. Methodology

    4. Vowels and vowel perception

    5. Stops and consonant perception

    6. Intonation

    7. Hearing subjects’ perception of cochlear implant users speech

    8. Cochlear implants on U. S. television

    9. Discussion

    Appendix A. Materials recorded

    Appendix B. Recording session orders and interview questions

    Appendix C. Rainbow passage figures

    Appendix D. "Bev loves Bob" figures

    Notes

    References

    Index

    Biography

    Joanna Hart Lowenstein