This study assesses the effects of an aural rehabilitation program, alone or in combination with information about cognitive learning style, on reducing feelings of hearing handicap by first-time hearing aid users. Subjects, 40 newly amplified hearing-impaired adults (ages 30 to 90), were pretested for conception of their hearing handicaps and individual cognitive learning style. Subjects received one of four treatments during a four-week trial period: control group (no treatment); aural rehabilitation; cognitive style disclosure; and cognitive style disclosure/aural rehabilitation. At the end of the trial period, each subject was again tested for hearing handicap perception. Test results indicated that subjects who received aural rehabilitation experienced a greater reduction in their perception of their handicap; the information provided in the cognitive style disclosures did not seem to have significant effect on the change scores. Correlation of the hearing handicap perception scores with subscale category scores of the cognitive learning style was used to measure four characteristics of cognitive style--magnitude, difference, relationship, and deduction. A positive trend was found, but there does not appear to be enough strength within any of the correlations to imply a significant relationship between any of the identified characteristics of cognitive style and the identified components of perception of hearing handicap. The text is supplemented by two tables, and a summary of the aural rehabilitation program is appended. (17 references) (EW)