This paper describes an adaptive cochlear model, in which the basilar membrane is modelled as a cascade of 128 digital filters, covering the frequency band from 70 Hz to 3. 4 kHz. The output of the inner hair cell of each filter is used to vary the coefficients of that filter so that its Q-factor is modified. Thus, for a low-amplitude stimulus, the Q-factor is increased, while it is decreased for a high-amplitude stimulus. This modification takes place at a rate which simulates the continuous adaptation of the basilar membrane. Results are presented for sinusoidal stimuli of different amplitudes, and also for speech input signals. Keywords: auditory modelling, speech processing.