Purpose:The ease of language understanding (ELU) model predicts two processing streams—fast, implicit prediction and slower, explicit postdiction—challenging single-factor “general speed” accounts. The present study examined whether cognitive speed is unitary or fractionated, whether both speed and accuracy predict speech in noise (SPIN), and how SPIN relates to rapid automatized naming (RAN).Method:Adults with normal hearing or hearing loss (n = 303) from the N200 study completed latency-based tasks indexing long-term memory access, executive control, Working Memory Tests, SPIN, and RAN. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used.Results:Two speed factors emerged—long-term memory access speed and executive speed—contradicting a general speed model. Speed–SPIN associations were small and clearest in easier listening conditions. Executive speed predicted RAN. SPIN correlated with RAN, especially among hard of hearing participants.Conclusions:Cognitive speed fractionates in line with the ELU. Working memory speed, unlike accuracy, does not drive SPIN. Executive speed selectively predicts RAN, and SPIN relates to RAN, supporting SPIN's potential as an early proxy for cognitive decline.

Individuals with congenital deafblindness (CDB) face severe challenges in communicative interactions, and it is evident from the existing research that it can also be a challenge to study these interactions. One particular challenge is the lack of standardized methods for assessing the communicative performance of the individual and how the social environment influences the performance. The ICF model provides a framework for assessing individuals’ performance in a wide range of categories, including communication. The ICF also provides a system to determine the facilitating or hindering role of social partners and other aspects of the environment on the individuals’ performance. Recently, the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Deafblindness was developed, which selected those ICF categories that are specifically relevant for this population. The present study used video observations of two cases to explore (1) to what extent the Core Set can be used to reliably classify the communication performance of individuals with CDB, and (2) the facilitating or hindering role of their communication partners on this performance. The study also assessed the usefulness and implications of the findings from the video observations by a discussion of these findings in an interpretive focus-group session with researchers and practitioners in the field of DB. Overall, the results of the study suggest that more research is needed to find reliable, valid, and practically useful ways of using the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Deafblindness as a basis for the evaluation of communicative interactions involving people with CDB.

Purpose:Hearing loss (HL) has been associated with cognitive challenges, but its relationship with reading comprehension remains less explored. This study examined sentence reading comprehension in individuals with HL, focusing on two key questions: (a) Does HL lead to a shift in the cognitive mechanisms supporting sentence reading comprehension—specifically, increased reliance on working memory capacity (WMC) to compensate for reduced efficiency in accessing semantic long-term memory (sLTM)? (b) Is HL associated with reduced performance on sentence reading comprehension tasks? We investigated whether individuals with HL demonstrate lower sLTM access efficiency, poorer WMC, greater reliance on WMC for comprehension, and overall reduced comprehension performance compared to those with normal hearing (NH).Method:A total of 432 adults (215 with mild-to-severe HL, 217 NH) completed tasks assessing sentence reading comprehension, sLTM access, and WMC. Fluid intelligence and education were included as control variables. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to compare latent constructs between groups and examine their relationships.Results:The HL group demonstrated lower sentence reading comprehension scores and less efficient sLTM access. No significant group difference was observed in WMC, but WMC had a stronger association with comprehension in the HL group than in the NH group. In both groups, sLTM access was important for comprehension performance.Conclusions:These findings suggest that sentence reading comprehension difficulties in individuals with HL may stem from reduced sLTM access efficiency and increased reliance on WMC, reflecting a shift in the balance between automatic retrieval processes and compensatory cognitive strategies. Interventions aimed at improving lexical retrieval may therefore support reading comprehension. Given the increasing reliance on reading as an alternative to auditory communication among this population, supporting reading skills may contribute to improved quality of life and independence among older adults.

This case study concerns communication with an individual with congenital deafblindness (CDB). Previous studies indicate that individuals with CDB face several challenges in language and psychosocial development due to limited hearing and visual abilities. Specifically, this study describes a case examining the influence of sign language knowledge on the communication between an individual with CDB and a support person fluent in sign language at a residential home. Through a conversation analysis (CA)-based multimodal analysis of the interactions between the support person and the individual with CDB, examples are provided to illustrate how sign language knowledge is used in communication. The results reveal specific communication strategies used, which are suggested to derive from the support person’s fluency in sign language. The study offers insights into how sign language knowledge contributes to a variety of communication strategies aimed at enhancing interaction with individuals with CDB.

This study aimed to understand how visually degraded conditions affect the intelligibility of isolated signs in sign language, and how these conditions influence perceived difficulty. Twenty-nine fluent users of Swedish Sign Language viewed 100 isolated signs presented under two types of visual degradation: spectral degradation (pixelation) and background noise (salt-and-pepper noise), each across five levels of degradation. Participants identified each sign and rated the perceived difficulty. Generalized linear mixed models were used to evaluate the effect of level of degradation on intelligibility and perceived difficulty, separately and for each type of degradation. Psychometric functions were estimated, and generalized linear mixed models were used to analyse the relationship between intelligibility and perceived difficulty. Both types of degradation significantly reduced intelligibility and increased perceived difficulty. Psychometric curves showed that intelligibility plateaued around 70% accuracy, mirroring results from speech-in-noise research. Correct responses were consistently rated as easier to perceive, and an interaction between degradation level and response accuracy was observed only in the spectral degradation condition, suggesting distinct perceptual processing mechanisms. Visual degradations affect sign language intelligibility in ways comparable to auditory distortions in speech, with differences between degradation types suggesting distinct perceptual strategies. These findings have implications for theories about linguistic processing in perceptually challenging conditions and call for further investigation into cognitive and linguistic factors that influence sign perception in degraded conditions.

Purpose:The purpose of the current study was to create a set of video-recorded real-sign–pseudosign pairs for Swedish Sign Language (Svenskt teckenspråk, STS). The pseudosigns should be based on the overall phonotactic structures of STS; each real-sign–pseudosign pair should be matched in terms of neighborhood density (ND) and phonotactic probability (PP); the real signs and pseudosigns should have similar distributions of ND, PP, and duration; and the set as a whole should have distributions of ND, PP, and (for the real signs) sign frequency (SF) similar to that of the STS. To achieve this, a secondary purpose was to develop algorithms to calculate ND and PP for STS and to investigate how the metrics correlate.Method:Based on publicly available data sources for STS, an initial data set was formed, which was utilized in an automatic algorithm to generate phonotactically feasible pseudosign candidates, as well as to calculate ND and PP values for both the real signs and the generated pseudosign candidates. The use of an automatic matching algorithm was followed by manual evaluation of the selected pseudosign candidates. The selected matching pairs of signs and pseudosigns were video recorded by four actors (two males and two females).Results:Four hundred sixty-six sign–pseudosign pairs, matching in ND and PP, were video-recorded. The real signs and pseudosigns had similar distributions of ND, PP, and duration, and the distributions of ND, PP, and SF values in the recorded set were similar to those of the STS as a whole.Conclusions:The resulting data set has been made publicly available and is suitable for use in psycholinguistic experiments involving STS. The present work presents a new standard for estimation of lexical metrics in sign language that can be applied to other sign languages than STS in future studies.

PurposeResearch on well-being in emerging adulthood, typically spanning the 20s to early 30s, has received limited attention in individuals with hearing loss. The present study aimed to explore the associations between well-being – operationalized as health-related and general quality of life as well as perceived stress – and age, working memory, and mentalizing, that is, the ability to reason on other person’s mental states, in young adults with hearing loss aged 18–35 years, and test whether well-being differed compared to normally-hearing peers.

MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, participants were assessed on tests of verbal working memory and mentalizing skill and self-reported perceived stress as well as health-related and general well-being. Forty-one participants, 18 with hearing loss and 23 normal hearing, with a mean age of 26 years were recruited to the study.

ResultsThe results suggest that young adults report similar levels of well-being irrespective of hearing status. Working memory and mentalizing abilities did not show an association to well-being in either group. Age was found to be negatively correlated with well-being for participants with hearing loss.

ConclusionThe level of well-being might decline in individuals with hearing loss as everyday demands increase with increasing age in early adulthood.

Full social participation requires literacy. However, students with intellectual disability (ID) often face significant barriers to accessing effective and inclusive reading education. This study investigated literacy skill development in beginning readers diagnosed with mild, moderate, and severe ID in need of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The 123 participating Swedish students were assigned to one of four groups. Three groups received digital reading instructions implemented by the teachers of the students in everyday schoolwork. Two groups practiced a single-component reading strategy (phonics-based or comprehension-based), and one group practiced a multicomponent reading strategy (both phonics-based and comprehension-based). The fourth group received teaching-as-usual. Literacy skills were assessed on four occasions, and the developmental trajectory was compared between the groups. The results indicated that literacy skills improved over time. Furthermore, the multicomponent strategy indicated a steeper trajectory in phonological awareness compared to the other groups. Therefore, the findings suggest that varied reading instruction may support the improvement of pre-literacy skills in beginning readers with an ID diagnosis and who have a need for AAC. However, limitations in the adherence to the intervention procedure encourage future studies to further compare the effects of single- and multicomponent reading instructions. Possible implications are discussed for reading instruction for students with ID and communicative disabilities. 

Purpose: Although the existing literature has explored the link between cognitive functioning and speech recognition in noise, the specific role of fluid intelligence still needs to be studied. Given the established association between working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence and the predictive power of WMC for speech recognition in noise, we aimed to elucidate the mediating role of fluid intelligence.

Method: We used data from the n200 study, a longitudinal investigation into aging, hearing ability, and cognitive functioning. We analyzed two age-matched samples: participants with hearing aids and a group with normal hearing. WMC was assessed using the Reading Span task, and fluid intelligence was measured with Raven's Progressive Matrices. Speech recognition in noise was evaluated using Hagerman sentences presented to target 80% speech-reception thresholds in four-talker babble. Data were analyzed using mediation analysis to examine fluid intelligence as a mediator between WMC and speech recognition in noise.

Results: We found a partial mediating effect of fluid intelligence on the relationship between WMC and speech recognition in noise, and that hearing status did not moderate this effect. In other words, WMC and fluid intelligence were related, and fluid intelligence partially explained the influence of WMC on speech recognition in noise.

Conclusions: This study shows the importance of fluid intelligence in speech recognition in noise, regardless of hearing status. Future research should use other advanced statistical techniques and explore various speech recognition tests and background maskers to deepen our understanding of the interplay between WMC and fluid intelligence in speech recognition.

This study investigates the impact of hearing aid (HA) use on visual lexical decision (LD) performance in individuals with hearing loss. We hypothesize that HA use benefits phonological processing and leads to faster and more accurate visual LD. We compared the visual LD performance among three groups: 92 short-term HA users (<5 years), 98 long-term HA users, and 55 nonusers, while controlling for hearing level, age, and years of education. Results showed that, compared with non-HA users, HA users showed significantly faster reaction times in visual LD, specifically, long-term HA use was associated with smaller difference in reaction time for pseudowords compared to nonwords. These results suggest that HA use is associated with faster visual word recognition, potentially reflecting enhanced cognitive functions beyond auditory processing. These findings point to possible cognitive advantages linked to HA use.