Department of Linguistics
SHLRC Seminar
| Seminar Title: | Music Perception of Cochlear Implant Users |
| Presenter(s): | Valerie Looi |
| Time: | 1:00 pm, Tuesday 24th May 2005 |
| Place: | Forster Room, Level 5, C5A |
Seminar: Music Perception of Cochlear Implant Users
With most cochlear implant (CI) users been able to achieve excellent speech recognition with the implant, they are now looking to obtain other benefits from the device; music has been prioritised by many listeners to be the next most important auditory stimuli. This seminar will outline a current research study investigating the music perception of CI users, compared to hearing aid (HA) users with equivalent levels of hearing loss. A music test battery incorporating rhythm, pitch, melody, instrument identification and appraisal tasks was administered to 15 CI users, 15 HA users who met the implantation criteria, and 9 subjects on the waiting list for a CI (who were tested pre-implantation with HAs, and subsequently post-surgery with the CI). Details of the study, along with the initial results and findings will be presented.
Presenter: Valerie Looi
Valerie is an audiologist and registered music therapist, in her final year of a PhD through the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne. After finishing her undergraduate degree majoring in piano at the QLD Conservatorium of Music, she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Therapy before graduating with a Masters in Clinical Audiology, both from the University of QLD. She has worked both as a music therapist at a range of special schools, and as an audiologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane as well as the University of Melbourne. Her PhD research, funded by a National Health & Medical Research Council Scholarship, is investigating the music perception of cochlear implant users.