In Brief:
There is a growing body of research regarding perception by cochlear implant (CI) recipients of computer-generated stimuli relevant to music (e.g., pure tone discrimination); however, few systematic studies exist regarding their perception of complex musical sounds heard in everyday life (e.g., CDs, radio, etc.). This study examines recognition of “real-world” music excerpts by adults CI recipients and a comparison group of normal-hearing adults. Performance by the CI recipients is examined as a function of device and processing strategy and is correlated with speech, cognitive, and demographic variables. Seventy-nine CI users and 30 normal-hearing adults were tested on open-set recognition of items from classical, country, and pop music styles. CI recipients were significantly less accurate than normal-hearing adults for all three styles. There were no significant differences by device or strategy. In summary, current-day implants do not effectively convey all salient features of music. Thus, recipients are required to extract those musical features most accessible, such as song lyrics or rhythm patterns, in order to identify music heard in everyday life.
