The Impact of Auditory Spectral Resolution on Listening Effort Revealed by Pupil Dilation

Purpose Fitting a cochlear implant (CI) for optimal speech perception does not necessarily optimize listening effort. This study aimed to show that listening effort may change between CI processing conditions for which speech intelligibility remains constant. Method Nineteen normal-hearing participants listened to CI simulations with varying numbers of spectral channels. A dual-task paradigm combining an intelligibility task with either a linguistic or nonlinguistic visual response-time (RT) task measured intelligibility and listening effort. The simultaneously performed tasks compete for limited cognitive resources; changes in effort associated with the intelligibility task are reflected in changes in RT on the visual task. A separate self-report scale provided a subjective measure of listening effort. Results All measures showed significant improvements with increasing spectral resolution up to 6 channels. However, only the RT measure of listening effort continued improving up to 8 channels. The effects were stronger for RTs recorded during listening than for RTs recorded between listening. Conclusion The results suggest that listening effort decreases with increased spectral resolution. Moreover, these improvements are best reflected in objective measures of listening effort, such as RTs on a secondary task, rather than intelligibility scores or subjective effort measures.

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A comparison of simultaneously-obtained measures of listening effort: pupil dilation, verbal response time and self-rating

International Journal of Audiology ◽

10.1080/14992027.2021.1921290 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Chiara Visentin ◽

Chiara Valzolgher ◽

Matteo Pellegatti ◽

Paola Potente ◽

Francesco Pavani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Response Time ◽

Pupil Dilation ◽

Verbal Response ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Self Rating

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Added-value of GEO-hyperspectral Infrared Radiances for Local Severe Storm Forecasts Using the Hybrid OSSE Method

Advances in Atmospheric Sciences ◽

10.1007/s00376-021-0443-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Pei Wang ◽

Zhenglong Li ◽

Jun Li ◽

Timothy J. Schmit

Keyword(s):

Spectral Resolution ◽

Weather Prediction ◽

Atmospheric Temperature ◽

Added Value ◽

High Spectral Resolution ◽

Vertical Resolution ◽

Severe Storm ◽

Impact Studies ◽

High Vertical Resolution ◽

The Impact

AbstractHigh spectral resolution (or hyperspectral) infrared (IR) sounders onboard low earth orbiting satellites provide high vertical resolution atmospheric information for numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. In contrast, imagers on geostationary (GEO) satellites provide high temporal and spatial resolution which are important for monitoring the moisture associated with severe weather systems, such as rapidly developing local severe storms (LSS). A hyperspectral IR sounder onboard a geostationary satellite would provide four-dimensional atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind profiles that have both high vertical resolution and high temporal/spatial resolutions. In this work, the added-value from a GEO-hyperspectral IR sounder is studied and discussed using a hybrid Observing System Simulation Experiment (OSSE) method. A hybrid OSSE is distinctively different from the traditional OSSE in that, (a) only future sensors are simulated from the nature run and (b) the forecasts can be evaluated using real observations. This avoids simulating the complicated observation characteristics of the current systems (but not the new proposed system) and allows the impact to be assessed against real observations. The Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) full spectral resolution (FSR) is assumed to be onboard a GEO for the impact studies, and the GEO CrIS radiances are simulated from the ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) with the hyperspectral IR all-sky radiative transfer model (HIRTM). The simulated GEO CrIS radiances are validated and the hybrid OSSE system is verified before the impact assessment. Two LSS cases from 2018 and 2019 are selected to evaluate the value-added impacts from the GEO CrIS-FSR data. The impact studies show improved atmospheric temperature, moisture, and precipitation forecasts, along with some improvements in the wind forecasts. An added-value, consisting of an overall 5% Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) reduction, was found when a GEO CrIS-FSR is used in replacement of LEO ones indicating the potential for applications of data from a GEO hyperspectral IR sounder to improve local severe storm forecasts.

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Disentangling listening effort and memory load beyond behavioural evidence: Pupillary response to listening effort during a concurrent memory task

10.1101/2020.05.04.076588 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yue Zhang ◽

Alexandre Lehmann ◽

Mickael Deroche

Keyword(s):

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Memory Load ◽

Pupil Diameter ◽

Memory Task ◽

Pupillary Response ◽

Pupil Dilation ◽

Growth Patterns ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Pupillary Responses ◽

Behavioural Evidence

AbstractRecent research has demonstrated that pupillometry is a robust measure for quantifying listening effort. However, pupillary responses in listening situations where multiple cognitive functions are engaged and sustained over a period of time remain hard to interpret. This limits our conceptualisation and understanding of listening effort in realistic situations, because rarely in everyday life are people challenged by one task at a time. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment was to reveal the dynamics of listening effort in a sustained listening condition using a word repeat and recall task.Words were presented in quiet and speech-shaped noise at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Participants were presented with lists of 10 words, and required to repeat each word after its presentation. At the end of the list, participants either recalled as many words as possible or moved on to the next list. Simultaneously, their pupil dilation was recorded throughout the whole experiment.When only word repeating was required, peak pupil dilation (PPD) was bigger in 0dB versus other conditions; whereas when recall was required, PPD showed no difference among SNR levels and PPD in 0dB was smaller than repeat-only condition. Baseline pupil diameter and PPD followed different growth patterns across the 10 serial positions in conditions requiring recall: baseline pupil diameter built up progressively and plateaued in the later positions (but shot up at the onset of recall, i.e. the end of the list); PPD decreased at a pace quicker than in repeat-only condition.The current findings concur with the recent literature in showing that additional cognitive load during a speech intelligibility task could disturb the well-established relation between pupillary response and listening effort. Both the magnitude and temporal pattern of task-evoked pupillary response differ greatly in complex listening conditions, urging for more listening effort studies in complex and realistic listening situations.

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Direct characterization of young giant exoplanets at high spectral resolution by coupling SPHERE and CRIRES+

Astronomy and Astrophysics ◽

10.1051/0004-6361/202038517 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 646 ◽

pp. A150

Author(s):

G. P. P. L. Otten ◽

A. Vigan ◽

E. Muslimov ◽

M. N’Diaye ◽

E. Choquet ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spectral Resolution ◽

Extrasolar Planets ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Detection Limits ◽

Spectral Lines ◽

High Spectral Resolution ◽

Contrast Imaging ◽

High Contrast Imaging ◽

The Impact

Studies of atmospheres of directly imaged extrasolar planets with high-resolution spectrographs have shown that their characterization is predominantly limited by noise on the stellar halo at the location of the studied exoplanet. An instrumental combination of high-contrast imaging and high spectral resolution that suppresses this noise and resolves the spectral lines can therefore yield higher quality spectra. We study the performance of the proposed HiRISE fiber coupling between the direct imager SPHERE and the spectrograph CRIRES+ at the Very Large Telescope for spectral characterization of directly imaged planets. Using end-to-end simulations of HiRISE we determine the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the detection of molecular species for known extrasolar planets in H and K bands, and compare them to CRIRES+. We investigate the ultimate detection limits of HiRISE as a function of stellar magnitude, and we quantify the impact of different coronagraphs and of the system transmission. We find that HiRISE largely outperforms CRIRES+ for companions around bright hosts like β Pictoris or 51 Eridani. For an H = 3.5 host, we observe a gain of a factor of up to 16 in observing time with HiRISE to reach the same S/N on a companion at 200 mas. More generally, HiRISE provides better performance than CRIRES+ in 2 h integration times between 50 and 350 mas for hosts with H < 8.5 and between 50 and 700 mas for H < 7. For fainter hosts like PDS 70 and HIP 65426, no significant improvements are observed. We find that using no coronagraph yields the best S/N when characterizing known exoplanets due to higher transmission and fiber-based starlight suppression. We demonstrate that the overall transmission of the system is in fact the main driver of performance. Finally, we show that HiRISE outperforms the best detection limits of SPHERE for bright stars, opening major possibilities for the characterization of future planetary companions detected by other techniques.

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Task-Induced Mental Fatigue and Motivation Influence Listening Effort as Measured by the Pupil Dilation in a Speech-in-Noise Task

10.1101/2022.01.04.22268734 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Defne Alfandari Menase ◽

Michael Richter ◽

Dorothea Wendt ◽

Lorenz Fiedler ◽

Graham Naylor

Keyword(s):

Quantitative Research ◽

Pupil Dilation ◽

Interactive Effects ◽

Monetary Incentives ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Heavy Load ◽

Speech In Noise ◽

Before And After ◽

Load Sequence

Objectives: Listening effort and fatigue are common complaints among individuals with hearing impairment (HI); however, the underlying mechanisms, and relationships between listening effort and fatigue are not well understood. Recent quantitative research suggests that the peak pupil dilation (PPD), which is commonly measured concurrent to the performance of a speech-in-noise task as an index of listening effort, may be informative of daily-life fatigue, but it remains unknown whether the same is true for task-induce fatigue. As fatigue effects are known to manifest differently depending on motivation, the main aim of the present study was to experimentally investigate the interactive effects of task-induced fatigue and motivation on the PPD. Design: In a pre-/post- fatigue within-subject design, 18 participants with normal hearing (NH) engaged in a 98-trial-long speech-in-noise task (i.e., a load sequence, approximately 40 min. long), which either excluded or included additional memory demands (light vs. heavy load sequence). Before and after the load sequence, baseline pupil diameter (BPD) and PPD were measured during shorter probe blocks of speech-in-noise tasks. In these probe blocks, if participants correctly repeated more than 60% of the keywords, they could win vouchers of either 20 or 160 Danish krones worth (low incentive vs. high incentive). After each probe block, participants reported their invested effort, tendency for quitting, and perceived performance. Results: The BPD in anticipation of listening declined from pre- to post-load sequence, suggesting an overall decrease in arousal, but the decline did not scale with the magnitude of the load sequence, nor with the amount of monetary incentive. Overall, there was larger pre- to post-load sequence decline in PPD when the load sequence was heavy and when the monetary incentives were low. Post-hoc analyses showed that the decline in PPD was only significant in the heavy-load sequence-low reward condition. The speech-in-noise task performance, self-reported effort, and self-reported tendency to quit listening did not change with the experimental conditions. Conclusions This is the first study to investigate the influence of task-induced fatigue on BPD and PPD. Whereas BPD was not sensitive to the magnitude of previous load sequence and monetary incentives, the decline in PPD from pre- to post- load sequence was significant after the heavy load sequence when the offered monetary incentives were low. This result supports the understanding that fatigue and motivation interactively influence listening effort.

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The impact of cochlear implantation on spatial hearing and listening effort

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4969669 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 140 (4) ◽

pp. 3100-3100 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ruth Litovsky ◽

Sara Misurelli ◽

Shelly Godar ◽

Tanvi Thakkar ◽

Alan Kan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cochlear Implantation ◽

Spatial Hearing ◽

Listening Effort ◽

The Impact

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The impact of spectral resolution on satellite retrieval accuracy of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub>

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions ◽

10.5194/amtd-6-10399-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (6) ◽

pp. 10399-10441

Author(s):

A. Galli ◽

S. Guerlet ◽

A. Butz ◽

I. Aben ◽

H. Suto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spectral Resolution ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Model Errors ◽

Water Abundance ◽

Retrieval Accuracy ◽

Selective Degradation ◽

Cost Benefit Ratio ◽

The Fourier Transform ◽

The Impact

Abstract. The Fourier-transform spectrometer on board the Japanese GOSAT satellite offers an excellent opportunity to study the impact of instrument resolution on retrieval accuracy of CO2 and CH4. This is relevant to further improve retrieval accuracy and to optimize the cost-benefit ratio of future satellite missions for the remote sensing of greenhouse gases. To address this question, we degrade GOSAT measurements with a spectral resolution of &approx; 0.24 cm−1 step-by-step to a resolution of 1.5 cm−1. We examine the results by comparing relative differences at various resolutions, by referring the results to reference values from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), and by calculating and inverting synthetic spectra for which the true CO2 and CH4 columns are known. The main impacts of degrading the spectral resolution turn out to be consistent for the first two approaches; pure forward model errors identified with simulated measurements are much smaller. For GOSAT spectra, the most notable effect on CO2 retrieval accuracy is the increase of the standard deviation of retrieval errors from 0.7% to 1.0% when the spectral resolution is reduced by a factor of six. The retrieval biases against atmospheric water abundance and airmass become stronger with decreasing resolution. The error scatter increase for CH4 columns is less pronounced. The selective degradation of single spectral windows demonstrates that the retrieval accuracy of CO2 and CH4 is dominated by the spectral range where the absorption lines of the target molecule are located. For both GOSAT and synthetic measurements, retrieval accuracy decreases with lower spectral resolution, suggesting increasing interference errors.

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