Towards the improvement of the musical experiences of cochlear implant users
Abstract
Most previous research into cochlear implant (CI) mediated music listening deals with
the mechanisms and efficacy of music perception and does not often account for the
listeners real-world musical experience. Measurements of music perception ability are
based on listening tasks such as pitch-discrimination, timbre-recognition and
rhythmic-identification, and rarely (if ever) relate to the individual experience of the
human subject. The exploration of musical experience, however, is based on a holistic
view of the ways in which individual people experience music, which can be informed by
the interaction of a multitude of factors. For the purposes of this thesis, three categories
of experience are considered to coalesce to inform the general musical experience:
sensory experience, cognitive experience and social/environmental experience.
This thesis moves towards consideration of the real-world musical experiences of
cochlear implant users (CIUs) with a view of developing strategies that can be
implemented to improve those elements of the musical experience that may be
problematic. The thesis comprises three main sections as follows:
The first section investigates the musical experiences of CI users (CIUs) by means of a
questionnaire study and the consideration of information gained from music focus
groups and conversations with implant users. Results show a great deal of variability in
the musical experiences of CIUs but many people report positive experiences of music
despite suffering from what may be described as ‘poor’ music perception.
The second section outlines the design, development and implementation of a
multi-channel mixer application, which is used in a study exploring the way in which
CIUs mix multi-channel music, to gain insight into their experience of musical elements.
Analysing the user-generated mix data provides considerable insights into various
elements of the musical experience of participants. Again, results show a large degree of
variability on this issue amongst CIUs, and also that the average mixes of CIUs differ
significantly from that of a control group of normal-hearing (NH) participants.
The third section describes the composition, development and evaluation of a musical
work specifically composed for CIUs but designed to be enjoyable for both CIUs and
NH audience members alike. The aim of this composition is to promote a positive
musical experience by addressing elements of the sensory, cognitive and
social/environmental experience based on findings of this research.
This thesis concludes by suggesting that the ideal approach for improving the musical
experiences of CIUs should focus on the individual, due to the great deal of variability
within this population, and presents some implications of this work and suggestions for
future research in this area.