Dear Ray and list,
I agree that *relearning/learning* to hear through a CI device is a crucial component to CI user success. In addition to a large amount of exposure and practice, the development of mechanisms and materials that can aid a user in learning *how* to and *what* to listen for seem to be as important as further advances in the device itself.
With respect to your last question.
> Anybody thought of making music tailored for CI users? If the low-end users can only distinguish large
> steps, then perhaps we can compose a new scale that only includes octaves and the associated fifths?
I have indeed thought about this, I thought about scales that would be composed of center frequencies from each of the bandpass channels for a person's strategy. This might be a starting place for a "musical rehabilitation" - as a person masters pitch discriminations in his or her own scale, more discrete pitch distances can be introduced. Or, alternatively, an external mechanism could use an algorithm to customize music to that person's specific scale
(My apologies Dr. McDermott, I should have promoted your paper for you...)