A modulating circle reduces listening effort and improves spoken word recognition in older adults

Objectives. Perceiving spoken language in noise can be a cognitively demanding task, particularly for older adults and those with hearing impairment. The current research assessed whether an abstract visual stimulus—a circle that modulates with the acoustic amplitude envelope of the speech—can affect speech processing in older adults. We hypothesized that, in line with recent research on younger adults, the circle would reduce listening effort during a word identification task. Given that older adults have slower processing speeds and poorer auditory temporal sensitivity than young adults, we expected that the abstract visual stimulus may have additional benefits for older adults, as it provides another source of information to compensate for limitations in auditory processing. Thus, we further hypothesized that, in contrast to the results from research on young adults, the circle would also improve word identification in noise for older adults.Design. Sixty-five older adults ages 65 to 83 (M = 71.11; SD = 4.01) with age-appropriate hearing completed four blocks of trials: two blocks (one with the modulating circle, one without) with a word identification task in two-talker babble, followed by two more word identification blocks that also included a simultaneous dual-task paradigm to assess listening effort.Results. Relative to an audio-only condition, the presence of the modulating circle substantially reduced listening effort (as indicated by faster responses to the secondary task in the dual-task paradigm) and also moderately improved spoken word intelligibility. Conclusions. Seeing the face of the talker substantially improves spoken word identification, but this is the first demonstration that another form of visual input—an abstract modulating circle—can also provide modest intelligibility benefits and substantial reductions in listening effort. These findings could have clinical or practical applications, as the modulating circle can be generated in real time to accompany speech in noisy situations, thereby improving speech intelligibility and reducing effort or fatigue for individuals who may have particular difficulty recognizing speech in background noise.

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About face: Seeing the talker improves spoken word recognition but increases listening effort

10.31234/osf.io/m7b8q ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Violet Aurora Brown ◽

Julia Feld Strand

Keyword(s):

Dual Task ◽

Speech Processing ◽

Background Noise ◽

Spoken Word Recognition ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Audiovisual Speech ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Auditory Modality ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Dual Task Paradigm

It is widely accepted that seeing a talker improves a listener’s ability to understand what a talker is saying in background noise (e.g., Erber, 1969; Sumby & Pollack, 1954). The literature is mixed, however, regarding the influence of the visual modality on the listening effort required to recognize speech (e.g., Fraser, Gagné, Alepins, & Dubois, 2010; Sommers & Phelps, 2016). Here, we present data showing that even when the visual modality robustly benefits recognition, processing audiovisual speech can still result in greater cognitive load than processing speech in the auditory modality alone. We show using a dual-task paradigm that the costs associated with audiovisual speech processing are more pronounced in easy listening conditions, in which speech can be recognized at high rates in the auditory modality alone—indeed, effort did not differ between audiovisual and audio-only conditions when the background noise was presented at a more difficult level. Further, we show that though these effects replicate with different stimuli and participants, they do not emerge when effort is assessed with a recall paradigm rather than a dual-task paradigm. Together, these results suggest that the widely cited audiovisual recognition benefit may come at a cost under more favorable listening conditions, and add to the growing body of research suggesting that various measures of effort may not be tapping into the same underlying construct (Strand et al., 2018).

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Rapid adaptation to fully intelligible nonnative-accented speech reduces listening effort

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820916726 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (9) ◽

pp. 1431-1443 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Violet A Brown ◽

Drew J McLaughlin ◽

Julia F Strand ◽

Kristin J Van Engen

Keyword(s):

Dual Task ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Perceptual Adaptation ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Lexical Representations ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Weak Evidence ◽

Processing Cost ◽

Dual Task Paradigm

In noisy settings or when listening to an unfamiliar talker or accent, it can be difficult to understand spoken language. This difficulty typically results in reductions in speech intelligibility, but may also increase the effort necessary to process the speech even when intelligibility is unaffected. In this study, we used a dual-task paradigm and pupillometry to assess the cognitive costs associated with processing fully intelligible accented speech, predicting that rapid perceptual adaptation to an accent would result in decreased listening effort over time. The behavioural and physiological paradigms provided converging evidence that listeners expend greater effort when processing nonnative- relative to native-accented speech, and both experiments also revealed an overall reduction in listening effort over the course of the experiment. Only the pupillometry experiment, however, revealed greater adaptation to nonnative- relative to native-accented speech. An exploratory analysis of the dual-task data that attempted to minimise practice effects revealed weak evidence for greater adaptation to the nonnative accent. These results suggest that even when speech is fully intelligible, resolving deviations between the acoustic input and stored lexical representations incurs a processing cost, and adaptation may attenuate this cost.

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The Effort Required to Comprehend a Short Documentary in Noise: A Comparison of Younger and Older Francophones

American Journal of Audiology ◽

10.1044/2019_aja-heal18-18-0170 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (3S) ◽

pp. 756-761 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fatima Tangkhpanya ◽

Morgane Le Carrour ◽

Félicia Doucet ◽

Jean-Pierre Gagné

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Dual Task ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Time Interval ◽

Speech Comprehension ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Comprehension Task ◽

Low Pass ◽

Dual Task Paradigm

Speech processing is more effortful under difficult listening conditions. Using a dual-task paradigm, it has been shown that older adults deploy more listening effort than younger adults when performing a speech recognition task in noise. Purpose The primary purpose of this study was to investigate whether a dual-task paradigm could be used to investigate differences in listening effort for an audiovisual speech comprehension task. If so, it was predicted that older adults would expend more listening effort than younger adults. Method Three groups of participants took part in the investigation: (a) young normal-hearing adults, (b) young normal-hearing adults listening to the speech material low-pass filtered above 3 kHz, and (c) older adults with age-related normal hearing sensitivity or better. A dual-task paradigm was used to measure listening effort. The primary task consisted of comprehending a short documentary presented at 63 dBA in a background noise that consisted of a 4-talker speech babble presented at 69 dBA. The participants had to answer a set of 15 questions related to the content of the documentary. The secondary task was a tactile detection task presented at a random time interval, over a 12-min period (approximately 8 stimuli/min). Each task was performed separately and concurrently. Results The younger participants who performed the listening task under the low-pass filtered condition displayed significantly more listening effort than the 2 other groups of participants. Conclusion First, the study confirmed that the dual-task paradigm used in this study was sufficiently sensitive to reveal significant differences in listening effort for a speech comprehension task across 3 groups of participants. Contrary to our prediction, it was the group of young normal-hearing participants who listened to the documentaries under the low-pass filtered condition that displayed significantly more listening effort than the other 2 groups of listeners.

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Rapid adaptation to fully intelligible nonnative-accented speech reduces listening effort

10.31234/osf.io/vbtnq ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Violet Aurora Brown ◽

Drew Jordan McLaughlin ◽

Julia Feld Strand ◽

Kristin J. Van Engen

Keyword(s):

Dual Task ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Perceptual Adaptation ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Lexical Representations ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Weak Evidence ◽

Processing Cost ◽

Dual Task Paradigm

In noisy settings or when listening to an unfamiliar talker or accent, it may be difficult to recognize spoken language. This difficulty typically results in reductions in speech intelligibility, but may also increase the effort necessary to process the speech. In the current study, we used a dual-task paradigm and pupillometry to assess the cognitive costs associated with processing fully intelligible accented speech, predicting that rapid perceptual adaptation to an accent would result in decreased listening effort over time. Both paradigms revealed greater effort for nonnative- relative to native-accented speech, as well as an overall reduction in listening effort over the course of the experiment, but only the pupillometry experiment revealed greater adaptation to nonnative- relative to native-accented speech. An exploratory analysis of the dual-task data that attempted to minimize practice effects, however, revealed weak evidence for greater adaptation to the nonnative accent. These results suggest that even when speech is fully intelligible, resolving deviations between the acoustic input and stored lexical representations incurs a processing cost, and adaptation may attenuate this cost.

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Effects of dual-task interference on swallowing in healthy aging adults

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0253550 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. e0253550

Author(s):

Rahul Krishnamurthy ◽

Rhea Philip ◽

Radish Kumar Balasubramanium ◽

Balaji Rangarathnam

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Dual Task ◽

Healthy Aging ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Hemispheric Dominance ◽

Older Individuals ◽

Swallowing Function ◽

Dual Task Paradigm ◽

Aging Adults

A wide body of literature has demonstrated that the neural representation of healthy swallowing is mostly bilateral, with one hemisphere dominant over the other. While several studies have demonstrated the presence of laterality for swallowing related functions among young adults, the data on older adults are still growing. The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential changes in hemispheric dominance in healthy aging adults for swallowing related tasks using a behavioral dual-task paradigm. A modified dual-task paradigm was designed to investigate the potential reduction in hemispherical specialization for swallowing function. Eighty healthy right-handed participants in the study were divided into two groups [Group 1: young adults (18–40 years) and Group 2: older adults (65 and above)]. All the participants performed a timed water swallow test at baseline and with two interference conditions (silent word repetition, and facial recognition). The results of the study revealed the following 1) a statistically significant effect of age on swallow performance; 2) statistically significant effect of each of the interference tasks on two of the swallow measures (VPS and VPT) in younger adults; and 3) no significant effect of the interference tasks on the swallowing performance of older adults. These findings suggest that aging substantially affects swallowing in older individuals, and this potentially accompanies a reduction in the hemispheric specialization for swallowing related tasks.

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Listening Effort With Cochlear Implant Simulations

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/1092-4388(2012/12-0074) ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 1075-1084 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Carina Pals ◽

Anastasios Sarampalis ◽

Deniz Başkent

Keyword(s):

Cochlear Implant ◽

Spectral Resolution ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Self Report ◽

Cognitive Resources ◽

Visual Response ◽

Processing Conditions ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Dual Task Paradigm ◽

Spectral Channels

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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Listening Effort Measured Using a Dual-task Paradigm in Adults With Different Amounts of Noise Exposure

Ear and Hearing ◽

10.1097/aud.0000000000001138 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽

Author(s):

Sofie Degeest ◽

Katrien Kestens ◽

Hannah Keppler

Keyword(s):

Dual Task ◽

Noise Exposure ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Dual Task Paradigm

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Cognitive and physiological measures of listening effort during degraded speech perception: A comparison of dual-task and pupillometry paradigms

10.31234/osf.io/jzg8u ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Elizabeth Margaret Colby ◽

Bob McMurray

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Dual Task ◽

Pupil Size ◽

Spoken Word Recognition ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Physiological Measures ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Response Feedback ◽

The Relationship

Purpose: Listening effort is quickly becoming an important metric for assessing speech perception in less-than-ideal situations. However, the relationship between the construct of listening effort and the measures used to assess it remain unclear. We compared two measures of listening effort: a cognitive dual task and a physiological pupillometry task. We sought to investigate the relationship between these measures of effort and whether engaging effort impacts speech accuracy.Method: In Experiment 1, 30 participants completed a dual task and pupillometry task that were carefully matched in stimuli and design. The dual task consisted of a spoken word recognition task and a visual match-to-sample task. In the pupillometry task, pupil size was monitored while participants completed a spoken word recognition task. Both tasks presented words at three levels of listening difficulty (unmodified, 8-channel vocoding, and 4-channel vocoding) and provided response feedback on every trial. We refined the pupillometry task in Experiment 2 (n=31); crucially, participants no longer received response feedback. Finally, we ran a new group of subjects on both tasks in Experiment 3 (n=30).Results: In Experiment 1, accuracy in the visual task decreased with increased listening difficulty in the dual task, but pupil size was sensitive to accuracy and not listening difficulty. After removing feedback in Experiment 2, changes in pupil size were predicted by listening difficulty, suggesting the task was now sensitive to engaged effort. Both tasks were sensitive to listening difficulty in Experiment 3, but there was no relationship between the tasks and neither task predicted speech accuracy.Conclusions: Consistent with previous work, we found little evidence for a relationship between different measures of listening effort. We also found no evidence that effort predicts speech accuracy, suggesting that engaging more effort does not lead to improved speech recognition. Cognitive and physiological measures of listening effort are likely sensitive to different aspects of the construct of listening effort.

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