# Cognitive Mechanisms of Language Processing

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2021 · $355,160

## Abstract

ABSTRACT – PROJECT 4
A major issue in hearing loss is variability. Hearing impaired (HI) listeners with similar profiles often show
different outcomes. Correlational studies show that signal quality (audibility, frequency separation) is related to
outcomes. However, equally important are factors like device experience, cognition and brain function. It is
unclear how these adaptations, cognitive resources, or brain areas improve perception. This project tackles
this by leveraging mechanisms and measures from cognitive science that describe how sound is mapped to
meaning, focusing on the issue of time. Since speech unfolds over time, there are ambiguous periods when
the input is compatible with many words. For example, at the onset of butter, the signal could match bump, but
and buck. Normal hearing (NH) listeners manage this ambiguity by immediately activating multiple words which
compete dynamically over time. For HI listeners, this natural ambiguity may be more problematic and managed
differently. We assess the dynamics of word recognition with an eye-tracking paradigm that traces how this
competition unfolds over several hundred milliseconds. Prior work suggests cochlear implant (CI) users tune
these dynamics differently than NH listeners; these differences are correlated with outcomes and may help
cope with poor input. This project asks why these competition processes differ in HI listeners. Are such
differences a poor version of typical language processing imposed by degraded input? Or are they a
compensatory adaptation for coping with uncertainty? To answer this question in a way that translates to the
real-world, Aim 1 moves beyond isolated words to examine sentences, where factors like semantics constrain
this competition. Aim 2 uses a longitudinal study to link differences in competition to peripheral auditory
function (Project 2), listening effort (Project 1) and cortical processing (Project 3); and Aim 3 complements this
with laboratory studies of adaption. Aim 4 examines how HI listeners fuse information from different types of
input, for example, from aided acoustic hearing and a CI. All aims leverage natural variation in multiple types of
HI listeners (standard CIs, acoustic+electric CI configurations, and hearing aids) to investigate how differences
in the peripheral input impact the mechanisms of language processing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10063447
- **Project number:** 5P50DC000242-34
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Bob McMurray
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $355,160
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10063447

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10063447, Cognitive Mechanisms of Language Processing (5P50DC000242-34). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10063447. Licensed CC0.

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