Speech Perception Training: Advanced Scoring and Feedback Methods

The purpose of the study is to assess training of visual speech (lipreading) and audiovisual (lipreading plus auditory) speech as a rehabilitation strategy for hearing loss in adults.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Hearing Loss
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training

Detailed Description

It is hypothesized that training that improves lipreading in older adults can carry over to untrained lipreading materials and to audiovisual speech recognition in noise. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests of speech recognition with visual-only, auditory-only, and audiovisual spoken sentences and isolated words. During pre- and post-training tests, they carry out forced choice identification of lipread consonants. Participants who are assigned to a training arm train on lipreading isolated sentences (Aim 1) or on learning via lipreading sets of isolated nonsense words (Aim 2). Depending on the outcomes of Aims 1 and 2, in Aim 3, new participants receive audiovisual training with conditions from Aims 1 and 2.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 138
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Virginia
    • Washington, Virginia, United States, 20052
      • George Washington University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 55 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Must have Mild to severe hearing loss
• Native speaker of American English
• Access to computer and the ability to use it for the testing, training, and teleconferencing
• computer display >= 10 inches diagonal

Exclusion Criteria:

• Internet too slow for streaming
• History of brain trauma or learning disability
• Poor (corrected) vision

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

7

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Aim 1, Sentence Training: Sentence Feedback; In Aim 1, which is sentence lipreading training, the intervention compares the provision of three different types of feedback for lipreading. This arm gives printed whole sentence feedback following an attempt to lipread each sentence. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests.	Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training; Training for each training arm takes place over 10 sessions carried out at home. on the participant's own computer without experimenter direct supervision. Pre- and post-training tests are carried out under experimenter supervision.
Experimental: Aim 1, Sentence Training: Word Feedback; In Aim 1, which is sentence lipreading training, the intervention compares the provision of three different types of feedback for lipreading. This arm gives printed whole word feedback following an attempt to lipread each sentence. Word feedback is for correct words and words that are perceptually similar but incorrect responses. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests.	Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training; Training for each training arm takes place over 10 sessions carried out at home. on the participant's own computer without experimenter direct supervision. Pre- and post-training tests are carried out under experimenter supervision.
Experimental: Aim 1, Sentence Training: Consonant Feedback; In Aim 1, which is sentence lipreading training, the intervention compares the provision of three different types of feedback for lipreading. This arm gives printed consonant word feedback following an attempt to lipread each sentence. Word feedback is for correct words, but only the consonants are given as feedback for words that are perceptually similar but incorrect responses. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests.	Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training; Training for each training arm takes place over 10 sessions carried out at home. on the participant's own computer without experimenter direct supervision. Pre- and post-training tests are carried out under experimenter supervision.
No Intervention: Aim 1, Sentence Training: No Training Control; Participants receive only the pre- and post-training tests.
Experimental: Aim 2, Nonsense Word Training; Participants train to lipread nonsense words that name nonsense pictures. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests.	Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training; Training for each training arm takes place over 10 sessions carried out at home. on the participant's own computer without experimenter direct supervision. Pre- and post-training tests are carried out under experimenter supervision.
Experimental: Aim 3, Audiovisual Nonsense Word Training; Participants train to recognize audiovisual spoken nonsense words that name nonsense pictures and are presented in speech-shaped noise. The paradigm is the same as in Aim 2. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests.	Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training; Training for each training arm takes place over 10 sessions carried out at home. on the participant's own computer without experimenter direct supervision. Pre- and post-training tests are carried out under experimenter supervision.
Experimental: Aim 3, Audiovisual Sentence Training; Participants receive the same training paradigm from Aim 1 with the most effective feedback type from Aim 1. But the sentences are audiovisual and in speech-shaped noise. Participants receive pre- and post-training tests.	Behavioral: Speech Recognition Training; Training for each training arm takes place over 10 sessions carried out at home. on the participant's own computer without experimenter direct supervision. Pre- and post-training tests are carried out under experimenter supervision.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in words-correct scores across pre- and post-training sentence lipreading tests.	Change in words-correct scores across pre- and post-training visual-only sentence tests with open-set responses.	up to 8 weeks
Change in phonemes-correct scores across pre- and post-training sentence lipreading tests.	Change in phonemes-correct scores across pre- and post-training visual-only sentence tests with open-set responses.	up to 8 weeks
Change in consonant-identification scores across pre- and post-training word lipreading tests.	Change in consonants-correct scores across pre- and post-training for visual-only tests using isolated nonsense words and closed-set responses.	up to 8 weeks
Change in word-correct scores across pre- and post-training word lipreading tests.	Change in words-correct scores across pre- and post-training visual-only isolated real word tests with open-set response.	up to 8 weeks
Change in phonemes-correct scores across pre- and post-training word lipreading tests.	Change in phonemes-correct scores across pre- and post-training visual-only isolated real word tests with open-set response.	up to 8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in words-correct scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual sentence tests.	Change in words-correct scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual-in-noise sentence identification tests with open-set response.	up to 8 weeks
Change in phonemes-correct scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual sentence tests.	Change in phonemes-correct scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual-in-noise sentence identification tests with open-set response.	up to 8 weeks
Change in word-correct scores across pre- and post-training for audiovisual-in-noise word tests.	Change in word-correct scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual-in-noise isolated real word tests with open-set response.	up to 8 weeks
Change in phoneme-recognition scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual-in-noise word tests.	Change in phoneme-recognition scores across pre- and post-training audiovisual-in-noise isolated real word tests with open-set response.	up to 8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: SeeHear LLC
• Collaborators: George Washington University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 14, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 31, 2022
• Study Completion (Anticipated): August 31, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 2, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 18, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): August 19, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 15, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 14, 2023
• Last Verified: February 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: perceptual learning; lipreading speechreading; adults with acquired hearing loss; multisensory speech processing; remote training system; speech recognition in noise; perceptual feedback during training
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nervous System Diseases; Neurologic Manifestations; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; Ear Diseases; Sensation Disorders; Hearing Disorders; Hearing Loss; Deafness
• Other Study ID Numbers: DC015418

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: De-identified data may be shared with other researchers following appropriate agreements. Personally-identifiable data will never be shared with individuals outside the research team, except as required by Law, NIH, or Geourge Washington University.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available after they have been described in publications by the authors.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The data will be transferred via the Open Science Framework.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No