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Smith ED, Holt LL, Dick F. A one-man bilingual cocktail party: linguistic and non-linguistic effects on bilinguals' speech recognition in Mandarin and English. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2024; 9:35. [PMID: 38834918 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-024-00562-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/19/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Multilingual speakers can find speech recognition in everyday environments like restaurants and open-plan offices particularly challenging. In a world where speaking multiple languages is increasingly common, effective clinical and educational interventions will require a better understanding of how factors like multilingual contexts and listeners' language proficiency interact with adverse listening environments. For example, word and phrase recognition is facilitated when competing voices speak different languages. Is this due to a "release from masking" from lower-level acoustic differences between languages and talkers, or higher-level cognitive and linguistic factors? To address this question, we created a "one-man bilingual cocktail party" selective attention task using English and Mandarin speech from one bilingual talker to reduce low-level acoustic cues. In Experiment 1, 58 listeners more accurately recognized English targets when distracting speech was Mandarin compared to English. Bilingual Mandarin-English listeners experienced significantly more interference and intrusions from the Mandarin distractor than did English listeners, exacerbated by challenging target-to-masker ratios. In Experiment 2, 29 Mandarin-English bilingual listeners exhibited linguistic release from masking in both languages. Bilinguals experienced greater release from masking when attending to English, confirming an influence of linguistic knowledge on the "cocktail party" paradigm that is separate from primarily energetic masking effects. Effects of higher-order language processing and expertise emerge only in the most demanding target-to-masker contexts. The "one-man bilingual cocktail party" establishes a useful tool for future investigations and characterization of communication challenges in the large and growing worldwide community of Mandarin-English bilinguals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin D Smith
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
| | - Lori L Holt
- College of Liberal Arts, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Sarah M. & Charles E. Seay Building, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
| | - Frederic Dick
- Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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Silcox JW, Bennett K, Copeland A, Ferguson SH, Payne BR. The Costs (and Benefits?) of Effortful Listening for Older Adults: Insights from Simultaneous Electrophysiology, Pupillometry, and Memory. J Cogn Neurosci 2024; 36:997-1020. [PMID: 38579256 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
Although the impact of acoustic challenge on speech processing and memory increases as a person ages, older adults may engage in strategies that help them compensate for these demands. In the current preregistered study, older adults (n = 48) listened to sentences-presented in quiet or in noise-that were high constraint with either expected or unexpected endings or were low constraint with unexpected endings. Pupillometry and EEG were simultaneously recorded, and subsequent sentence recognition and word recall were measured. Like young adults in prior work, we found that noise led to increases in pupil size, delayed and reduced ERP responses, and decreased recall for unexpected words. However, in contrast to prior work in young adults where a larger pupillary response predicted a recovery of the N400 at the cost of poorer memory performance in noise, older adults did not show an associated recovery of the N400 despite decreased memory performance. Instead, we found that in quiet, increases in pupil size were associated with delays in N400 onset latencies and increased recognition memory performance. In conclusion, we found that transient variation in pupil-linked arousal predicted trade-offs between real-time lexical processing and memory that emerged at lower levels of task demand in aging. Moreover, with increased acoustic challenge, older adults still exhibited costs associated with transient increases in arousal without the corresponding benefits.
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3
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Herrera C, Whittle N, Leek MR, Brodbeck C, Lee G, Barcenas C, Barnes S, Holshouser B, Yi A, Venezia JH. Cortical networks for recognition of speech with simultaneous talkers. Hear Res 2023; 437:108856. [PMID: 37531847 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023]
Abstract
The relative contributions of superior temporal vs. inferior frontal and parietal networks to recognition of speech in a background of competing speech remain unclear, although the contributions themselves are well established. Here, we use fMRI with spectrotemporal modulation transfer function (ST-MTF) modeling to examine the speech information represented in temporal vs. frontoparietal networks for two speech recognition tasks with and without a competing talker. Specifically, 31 listeners completed two versions of a three-alternative forced choice competing speech task: "Unison" and "Competing", in which a female (target) and a male (competing) talker uttered identical or different phrases, respectively. Spectrotemporal modulation filtering (i.e., acoustic distortion) was applied to the two-talker mixtures and ST-MTF models were generated to predict brain activation from differences in spectrotemporal-modulation distortion on each trial. Three cortical networks were identified based on differential patterns of ST-MTF predictions and the resultant ST-MTF weights across conditions (Unison, Competing): a bilateral superior temporal (S-T) network, a frontoparietal (F-P) network, and a network distributed across cortical midline regions and the angular gyrus (M-AG). The S-T network and the M-AG network responded primarily to spectrotemporal cues associated with speech intelligibility, regardless of condition, but the S-T network responded to a greater range of temporal modulations suggesting a more acoustically driven response. The F-P network responded to the absence of intelligibility-related cues in both conditions, but also to the absence (presence) of target-talker (competing-talker) vocal pitch in the Competing condition, suggesting a generalized response to signal degradation. Task performance was best predicted by activation in the S-T and F-P networks, but in opposite directions (S-T: more activation = better performance; F-P: vice versa). Moreover, S-T network predictions were entirely ST-MTF mediated while F-P network predictions were ST-MTF mediated only in the Unison condition, suggesting an influence from non-acoustic sources (e.g., informational masking) in the Competing condition. Activation in the M-AG network was weakly positively correlated with performance and this relation was entirely superseded by those in the S-T and F-P networks. Regarding contributions to speech recognition, we conclude: (a) superior temporal regions play a bottom-up, perceptual role that is not qualitatively dependent on the presence of competing speech; (b) frontoparietal regions play a top-down role that is modulated by competing speech and scales with listening effort; and (c) performance ultimately relies on dynamic interactions between these networks, with ancillary contributions from networks not involved in speech processing per se (e.g., the M-AG network).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nicole Whittle
- VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, CA, United States
| | - Marjorie R Leek
- VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, CA, United States; Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States
| | | | - Grace Lee
- Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States
| | | | - Samuel Barnes
- Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States
| | | | - Alex Yi
- VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, CA, United States; Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States
| | - Jonathan H Venezia
- VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, CA, United States; Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, United States.
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4
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Aschenbrenner AJ, Crawford JL, Peelle JE, Fagan AM, Benzinger TLS, Morris JC, Hassenstab J, Braver TS. Increased cognitive effort costs in healthy aging and preclinical Alzheimer's disease. Psychol Aging 2023; 38:428-442. [PMID: 37067479 PMCID: PMC10440282 DOI: 10.1037/pag0000742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/18/2023]
Abstract
Life-long engagement in cognitively demanding activities may mitigate against declines in cognitive ability observed in healthy or pathological aging. However, the "mental costs" associated with completing cognitive tasks also increase with age and may be partly attributed to increases in preclinical levels of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, specifically amyloid. We test whether cognitive effort costs increase in a domain-general manner among older adults, and further, whether such age-related increases in cognitive effort costs are associated with working memory (WM) capacity or amyloid burden, a signature pathology of AD. In two experiments, we administered a behavioral measure of cognitive effort costs (cognitive effort discounting) to a sample of older adults recruited from online sources (Experiment 1) or from ongoing longitudinal studies of aging and dementia (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 compared age-related differences in cognitive effort costs across two domains, WM and speech comprehension. Experiment 2 compared cognitive effort costs between a group of participants who were rated positive for amyloid relative to those with no evidence of amyloid. Results showed age-related increases in cognitive effort costs were evident in both domains. Cost estimates were highly correlated between the WM and speech comprehension tasks but did not correlate with WM capacity. In addition, older adults who were amyloid positive had higher cognitive effort costs than those who were amyloid negative. Cognitive effort costs may index a domain-general trait that consistently increases in aging. Differences in cognitive effort costs associated with amyloid burden suggest a potential neurobiological mechanism for age-related differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jennifer L Crawford
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
| | | | - Anne M Fagan
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis
| | | | - John C Morris
- Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis
| | | | - Todd S Braver
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
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5
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Carter BL, Apoux F, Healy EW. The Influence of Noise Type and Semantic Predictability on Word Recall in Older Listeners and Listeners With Hearing Impairment. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:3548-3565. [PMID: 35973100 PMCID: PMC9913215 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Revised: 05/01/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE A dual-task paradigm was implemented to investigate how noise type and sentence context may interact with age and hearing loss to impact word recall during speech recognition. METHOD Three noise types with varying degrees of temporal/spectrotemporal modulation were used: speech-shaped noise, speech-modulated noise, and three-talker babble. Participant groups included younger listeners with normal hearing (NH), older listeners with near-normal hearing, and older listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. An adaptive measure was used to establish the signal-to-noise ratio approximating 70% sentence recognition for each participant in each noise type. A word-recall task was then implemented while matching speech-recognition performance across noise types and participant groups. Random-intercept linear mixed-effects models were used to determine the effects of and interactions between noise type, sentence context, and participant group on word recall. RESULTS The results suggest that noise type does not significantly impact word recall when word-recognition performance is controlled. When data from noise types were pooled and compared with quiet, and recall was assessed: older listeners with near-normal hearing performed well when either quiet backgrounds or high sentence context (or both) were present, but older listeners with hearing loss performed well only when both quiet backgrounds and high sentence context were present. Younger listeners with NH were robust to the detrimental effects of noise and low context. CONCLUSIONS The general presence of noise has the potential to decrease word recall, but type of noise does not appear to significantly impact this observation when overall task difficulty is controlled. The presence of noise as well as deficits related to age and/or hearing loss appear to limit the availability of cognitive processing resources available for working memory during conversation in difficult listening environments. The conversation environments that impact these resources appear to differ depending on age and/or hearing status.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brittney L. Carter
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus
| | - Frédéric Apoux
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus
| | - Eric W. Healy
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus
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6
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Crandell HA, Silcox JW, Ferguson SH, Lohani M, Payne BR. The Effects of Captioning Errors, Background Noise, and Hearing Loss on Memory for Text-Captioned Speech. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:2364-2390. [PMID: 35623337 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Previous studies have suggested that the negative effects of acoustic challenge on speech memory can be attenuated with assistive text captions, particularly among older adults with hearing impairment. However, no studies have systematically examined the effects of text-captioning errors, which are common in automated speech recognition (ASR) systems. METHOD In two experiments, we examined memory for text-captioned speech (with and without background noise) when captions had no errors (control) or had one of three common ASR errors: substitution, deletion, or insertion errors. RESULTS In both Experiment 1 (young adults with normal hearing) and Experiment 2 (older adults with varying hearing acuity), we observed similar additive effects of caption errors and background noise, such that increased background noise and the presence of captioning errors negatively impacted memory outcomes. Notably, the negative effects of captioning errors were largest among older adults with increased hearing thresholds, suggesting that older adults with hearing loss may show an increased reliance on text captions compared to adults with normal hearing. CONCLUSION Our findings show that even a single-word error can be deleterious to memory for text-captioned speech, especially in older adults with hearing loss. Therefore, to produce the greatest benefit to memory, it is crucial that text captions are accurate.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jack W Silcox
- Department of Psychology, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City
| | - Sarah H Ferguson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City
| | - Monika Lohani
- Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City
| | - Brennan R Payne
- Department of Psychology, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City
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7
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Sherafati A, Dwyer N, Bajracharya A, Hassanpour MS, Eggebrecht AT, Firszt JB, Culver JP, Peelle JE. Prefrontal cortex supports speech perception in listeners with cochlear implants. eLife 2022; 11:e75323. [PMID: 35666138 PMCID: PMC9225001 DOI: 10.7554/elife.75323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Cochlear implants are neuroprosthetic devices that can restore hearing in people with severe to profound hearing loss by electrically stimulating the auditory nerve. Because of physical limitations on the precision of this stimulation, the acoustic information delivered by a cochlear implant does not convey the same level of acoustic detail as that conveyed by normal hearing. As a result, speech understanding in listeners with cochlear implants is typically poorer and more effortful than in listeners with normal hearing. The brain networks supporting speech understanding in listeners with cochlear implants are not well understood, partly due to difficulties obtaining functional neuroimaging data in this population. In the current study, we assessed the brain regions supporting spoken word understanding in adult listeners with right unilateral cochlear implants (n=20) and matched controls (n=18) using high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT), a quiet and non-invasive imaging modality with spatial resolution comparable to that of functional MRI. We found that while listening to spoken words in quiet, listeners with cochlear implants showed greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex than listeners with normal hearing, specifically in a region engaged in a separate spatial working memory task. These results suggest that listeners with cochlear implants require greater cognitive processing during speech understanding than listeners with normal hearing, supported by compensatory recruitment of the left prefrontal cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arefeh Sherafati
- Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | - Noel Dwyer
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | - Aahana Bajracharya
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | | | - Adam T Eggebrecht
- Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
- Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | - Jill B Firszt
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | - Joseph P Culver
- Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
- Department of Physics, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | - Jonathan E Peelle
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
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8
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Li H. Research on Feature Extraction and Chinese Translation Method of Internet-of-Things English Terminology. COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 2022:6344571. [PMID: 35528369 PMCID: PMC9071986 DOI: 10.1155/2022/6344571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2022] [Accepted: 03/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Feature extraction and Chinese translation of Internet-of-Things English terms are the basis of many natural language processing. Its main purpose is to extract rich semantic information from unstructured texts to allow computers to further calculate and process them to meet different types of NLP-based tasks. However, most of the current methods use simple neural network models to count the word frequency or probability of words in the text, and it is difficult to accurately understand and translate IoT English terms. In response to this problem, this study proposes a neural network for feature extraction and Chinese translation of IoT English terms based on LSTM, which can not only correctly extract and translate IoT English vocabulary but also realize the feature correspondence between English and Chinese. The neural network proposed in this study has been tested and trained on multiple datasets, and it basically fulfills the requirements of feature translation and Chinese translation of Internet-of-Things terms in English and has great potential in the follow-up work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huasu Li
- Fundamental Teaching Department, Huanghe Jiaotong University, Jiaozuo 454950, China
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9
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Tamati TN, Sevich VA, Clausing EM, Moberly AC. Lexical Effects on the Perceived Clarity of Noise-Vocoded Speech in Younger and Older Listeners. Front Psychol 2022; 13:837644. [PMID: 35432072 PMCID: PMC9010567 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2021] [Accepted: 02/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
When listening to degraded speech, such as speech delivered by a cochlear implant (CI), listeners make use of top-down linguistic knowledge to facilitate speech recognition. Lexical knowledge supports speech recognition and enhances the perceived clarity of speech. Yet, the extent to which lexical knowledge can be used to effectively compensate for degraded input may depend on the degree of degradation and the listener's age. The current study investigated lexical effects in the compensation for speech that was degraded via noise-vocoding in younger and older listeners. In an online experiment, younger and older normal-hearing (NH) listeners rated the clarity of noise-vocoded sentences on a scale from 1 ("very unclear") to 7 ("completely clear"). Lexical information was provided by matching text primes and the lexical content of the target utterance. Half of the sentences were preceded by a matching text prime, while half were preceded by a non-matching prime. Each sentence also consisted of three key words of high or low lexical frequency and neighborhood density. Sentences were processed to simulate CI hearing, using an eight-channel noise vocoder with varying filter slopes. Results showed that lexical information impacted the perceived clarity of noise-vocoded speech. Noise-vocoded speech was perceived as clearer when preceded by a matching prime, and when sentences included key words with high lexical frequency and low neighborhood density. However, the strength of the lexical effects depended on the level of degradation. Matching text primes had a greater impact for speech with poorer spectral resolution, but lexical content had a smaller impact for speech with poorer spectral resolution. Finally, lexical information appeared to benefit both younger and older listeners. Findings demonstrate that lexical knowledge can be employed by younger and older listeners in cognitive compensation during the processing of noise-vocoded speech. However, lexical content may not be as reliable when the signal is highly degraded. Clinical implications are that for adult CI users, lexical knowledge might be used to compensate for the degraded speech signal, regardless of age, but some CI users may be hindered by a relatively poor signal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terrin N. Tamati
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Victoria A. Sevich
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Emily M. Clausing
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Aaron C. Moberly
- Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
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10
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McClannahan KS, Mainardi A, Luor A, Chiu YF, Sommers MS, Peelle JE. Spoken Word Recognition in Listeners with Mild Dementia Symptoms. J Alzheimers Dis 2022; 90:749-759. [PMID: 36189586 PMCID: PMC9885492 DOI: 10.3233/jad-215606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Difficulty understanding speech is a common complaint of older adults. In quiet, speech perception is often assumed to be relatively automatic. However, higher-level cognitive processes play a key role in successful communication in noise. Limited cognitive resources in adults with dementia may therefore hamper word recognition. OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to determine the impact of mild dementia on spoken word recognition in quiet and noise. METHODS Participants were 53-86 years with (n = 16) or without (n = 32) dementia symptoms as classified by the Clinical Dementia Rating scale. Participants performed a word identification task with two levels of word difficulty (few and many similar sounding words) in quiet and in noise at two signal-to-noise ratios, +6 and +3 dB. Our hypothesis was that listeners with mild dementia symptoms would have more difficulty with speech perception in noise under conditions that tax cognitive resources. RESULTS Listeners with mild dementia symptoms had poorer task accuracy in both quiet and noise, which held after accounting for differences in age and hearing level. Notably, even in quiet, adults with dementia symptoms correctly identified words only about 80% of the time. However, word difficulty was not a factor in task performance for either group. CONCLUSION These results affirm the difficulty that listeners with mild dementia may have with spoken word recognition, both in quiet and in background noise, consistent with a role of cognitive resources in spoken word identification.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Amelia Mainardi
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - Austin Luor
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in St. Louis
| | - Yi-Fang Chiu
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Saint Louis University
| | - Mitchell S. Sommers
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis
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11
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Mo F, Gu J, Zhao K, Fu X. Confusion Effects of Facial Expression Recognition in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder and Healthy Controls. Front Psychol 2021; 12:703888. [PMID: 34712167 PMCID: PMC8546352 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Facial expression recognition plays a crucial role in understanding the emotion of people, as well as in social interaction. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have been repeatedly reported to be impaired in recognizing facial expressions. This study aimed to investigate the confusion effects between two facial expressions that presented different emotions and to compare the difference of confusion effect for each emotion pair between patients with MDD and healthy controls. Participants were asked to judge the emotion category of each facial expression in a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. Six basic emotions (i.e., happiness, fear, sadness, anger, surprise, and disgust) were examined in pairs, resulting in 15 emotion combinations. Results showed that patients with MDD were impaired in the recognition of all basic facial expressions except for the happy expression. Moreover, patients with MDD were more inclined to confuse a negative emotion (i.e., anger and disgust) with another emotion as compared to healthy controls. These findings highlight the importance that patients with MDD show a deficit of sensitivity in distinguishing specific two facial expressions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fan Mo
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jingjin Gu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ke Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaolan Fu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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12
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Van Os M, Kray J, Demberg V. Mishearing as a Side Effect of Rational Language Comprehension in Noise. Front Psychol 2021; 12:679278. [PMID: 34552526 PMCID: PMC8450506 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.679278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Language comprehension in noise can sometimes lead to mishearing, due to the noise disrupting the speech signal. Some of the difficulties in dealing with the noisy signal can be alleviated by drawing on the context – indeed, top-down predictability has shown to facilitate speech comprehension in noise. Previous studies have furthermore shown that strong reliance on the top-down predictions can lead to increased rates of mishearing, especially in older adults, which are attributed to general deficits in cognitive control in older adults. We here propose that the observed mishearing may be a simple consequence of rational language processing in noise. It should not be related to failure on the side of the older comprehenders, but instead would be predicted by rational processing accounts. To test this hypothesis, we extend earlier studies by running an online listening experiment with younger and older adults, carefully controlling the target and direct competitor in our stimuli. We show that mishearing is directly related to the perceptibility of the signal. We furthermore add an analysis of wrong responses, which shows that results are at odds with the idea that participants overly strongly rely on context in this task, as most false answers are indeed close to the speech signal, and not to the semantics of the context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marjolein Van Os
- Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Jutta Kray
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Vera Demberg
- Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany.,Department of Computer Science, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
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13
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Guediche S, Fiez JA. Comprehension of Morse Code Predicted by Item Recall From Short-Term Memory. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:3465-3475. [PMID: 34491811 PMCID: PMC8642092 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-21-00042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2021] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Morse code as a form of communication became widely used for telegraphy, radio and maritime communication, and military operations, and remains popular with ham radio operators. Some skilled users of Morse code are able to comprehend a full sentence as they listen to it, while others must first transcribe the sentence into its written letter sequence. Morse thus provides an interesting opportunity to examine comprehension differences in the context of skilled acoustic perception. Measures of comprehension and short-term memory show a strong correlation across multiple forms of communication. This study tests whether this relationship holds for Morse and investigates its underlying basis. Our analyses examine Morse and speech immediate serial recall, focusing on established markers of echoic storage, phonological-articulatory coding, and lexical-semantic support. We show a relationship between Morse short-term memory and Morse comprehension that is not explained by Morse perceptual fluency. In addition, we find that poorer serial recall for Morse compared to speech is primarily due to poorer item memory for Morse, indicating differences in lexical-semantic support. Interestingly, individual differences in speech item memory are also predictive of individual differences in Morse comprehension. Conclusions We point to a psycholinguistic framework to account for these results, concluding that Morse functions like "reading for the ears" (Maier et al., 2004) and that underlying differences in the integration of phonological and lexical-semantic knowledge impact both short-term memory and comprehension. The results provide insight into individual differences in the comprehension of degraded speech and strategies that build comprehension through listening experience. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16451868.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Guediche
- BCBL - Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Donostia, Spain
| | - Julie A. Fiez
- Departments of Psychology, Neuroscience, Communication Science and Disorders, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, PA
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Pupillometry reveals cognitive demands of lexical competition during spoken word recognition in young and older adults. Psychon Bull Rev 2021; 29:268-280. [PMID: 34405386 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-01991-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
In most contemporary activation-competition frameworks for spoken word recognition, candidate words compete against phonological "neighbors" with similar acoustic properties (e.g., "cap" vs. "cat"). Thus, recognizing words with more competitors should come at a greater cognitive cost relative to recognizing words with fewer competitors, due to increased demands for selecting the correct item and inhibiting incorrect candidates. Importantly, these processes should operate even in the absence of differences in accuracy. In the present study, we tested this proposal by examining differences in processing costs associated with neighborhood density for highly intelligible items presented in quiet. A second goal was to examine whether the cognitive demands associated with increased neighborhood density were greater for older adults compared with young adults. Using pupillometry as an index of cognitive processing load, we compared the cognitive demands associated with spoken word recognition for words with many or fewer neighbors, presented in quiet, for young (n = 67) and older (n = 69) adult listeners. Growth curve analysis of the pupil data indicated that older adults showed a greater evoked pupil response for spoken words than did young adults, consistent with increased cognitive load during spoken word recognition. Words from dense neighborhoods were marginally more demanding to process than words from sparse neighborhoods. There was also an interaction between age and neighborhood density, indicating larger effects of density in young adult listeners. These results highlight the importance of assessing both cognitive demands and accuracy when investigating the mechanisms underlying spoken word recognition.
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15
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Brown VA, Van Engen KJ, Peelle JE. Face mask type affects audiovisual speech intelligibility and subjective listening effort in young and older adults. COGNITIVE RESEARCH-PRINCIPLES AND IMPLICATIONS 2021; 6:49. [PMID: 34275022 PMCID: PMC8286438 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-021-00314-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Identifying speech requires that listeners make rapid use of fine-grained acoustic cues—a process that is facilitated by being able to see the talker’s face. Face masks present a challenge to this process because they can both alter acoustic information and conceal the talker’s mouth. Here, we investigated the degree to which different types of face masks and noise levels affect speech intelligibility and subjective listening effort for young (N = 180) and older (N = 180) adult listeners. We found that in quiet, mask type had little influence on speech intelligibility relative to speech produced without a mask for both young and older adults. However, with the addition of moderate (− 5 dB SNR) and high (− 9 dB SNR) levels of background noise, intelligibility dropped substantially for all types of face masks in both age groups. Across noise levels, transparent face masks and cloth face masks with filters impaired performance the most, and surgical face masks had the smallest influence on intelligibility. Participants also rated speech produced with a face mask as more effortful than unmasked speech, particularly in background noise. Although young and older adults were similarly affected by face masks and noise in terms of intelligibility and subjective listening effort, older adults showed poorer intelligibility overall and rated the speech as more effortful to process relative to young adults. This research will help individuals make more informed decisions about which types of masks to wear in various communicative settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Violet A Brown
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, USA.
| | - Kristin J Van Engen
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, USA
| | - Jonathan E Peelle
- Department of Otolaryngology, Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, USA
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16
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Text Captioning Buffers Against the Effects of Background Noise and Hearing Loss on Memory for Speech. Ear Hear 2021; 43:115-127. [PMID: 34260436 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000001079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Everyday speech understanding frequently occurs in perceptually demanding environments, for example, due to background noise and normal age-related hearing loss. The resulting degraded speech signals increase listening effort, which gives rise to negative downstream effects on subsequent memory and comprehension, even when speech is intelligible. In two experiments, we explored whether the presentation of realistic assistive text captioned speech offsets the negative effects of background noise and hearing impairment on multiple measures of speech memory. DESIGN In Experiment 1, young normal-hearing adults (N = 48) listened to sentences for immediate recall and delayed recognition memory. Speech was presented in quiet or in two levels of background noise. Sentences were either presented as speech only or as text captioned speech. Thus, the experiment followed a 2 (caption vs no caption) × 3 (no noise, +7 dB signal-to-noise ratio, +3 dB signal-to-noise ratio) within-subjects design. In Experiment 2, a group of older adults (age range: 61 to 80, N = 31), with varying levels of hearing acuity completed the same experimental task as in Experiment 1. For both experiments, immediate recall, recognition memory accuracy, and recognition memory confidence were analyzed via general(ized) linear mixed-effects models. In addition, we examined individual differences as a function of hearing acuity in Experiment 2. RESULTS In Experiment 1, we found that the presentation of realistic text-captioned speech in young normal-hearing listeners showed improved immediate recall and delayed recognition memory accuracy and confidence compared with speech alone. Moreover, text captions attenuated the negative effects of background noise on all speech memory outcomes. In Experiment 2, we replicated the same pattern of results in a sample of older adults with varying levels of hearing acuity. Moreover, we showed that the negative effects of hearing loss on speech memory in older adulthood were attenuated by the presentation of text captions. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, these findings strongly suggest that the simultaneous presentation of text can offset the negative effects of effortful listening on speech memory. Critically, captioning benefits extended from immediate word recall to long-term sentence recognition memory, a benefit that was observed not only for older adults with hearing loss but also young normal-hearing listeners. These findings suggest that the text captioning benefit to memory is robust and has potentially wide applications for supporting speech listening in acoustically challenging environments.
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Silcox JW, Payne BR. The costs (and benefits) of effortful listening on context processing: A simultaneous electrophysiology, pupillometry, and behavioral study. Cortex 2021; 142:296-316. [PMID: 34332197 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.06.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Revised: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 06/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
There is an apparent disparity between the fields of cognitive audiology and cognitive electrophysiology as to how linguistic context is used when listening to perceptually challenging speech. To gain a clearer picture of how listening effort impacts context use, we conducted a pre-registered study to simultaneously examine electrophysiological, pupillometric, and behavioral responses when listening to sentences varying in contextual constraint and acoustic challenge in the same sample. Participants (N = 44) listened to sentences that were highly constraining and completed with expected or unexpected sentence-final words ("The prisoners were planning their escape/party") or were low-constraint sentences with unexpected sentence-final words ("All day she thought about the party"). Sentences were presented either in quiet or with +3 dB SNR background noise. Pupillometry and EEG were simultaneously recorded and subsequent sentence recognition and word recall were measured. While the N400 expectancy effect was diminished by noise, suggesting impaired real-time context use, we simultaneously observed a beneficial effect of constraint on subsequent recognition memory for degraded speech. Importantly, analyses of trial-to-trial coupling between pupil dilation and N400 amplitude showed that when participants' showed increased listening effort (i.e., greater pupil dilation), there was a subsequent recovery of the N400 effect, but at the same time, higher effort was related to poorer subsequent sentence recognition and word recall. Collectively, these findings suggest divergent effects of acoustic challenge and listening effort on context use: while noise impairs the rapid use of context to facilitate lexical semantic processing in general, this negative effect is attenuated when listeners show increased effort in response to noise. However, this effort-induced reliance on context for online word processing comes at the cost of poorer subsequent memory.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Brennan R Payne
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, USA; Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of Utah, USA
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18
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Schubotz L, Holler J, Drijvers L, Özyürek A. Aging and working memory modulate the ability to benefit from visible speech and iconic gestures during speech-in-noise comprehension. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 85:1997-2011. [PMID: 32627053 PMCID: PMC8289811 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01363-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2019] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
When comprehending speech-in-noise (SiN), younger and older adults benefit from seeing the speaker's mouth, i.e. visible speech. Younger adults additionally benefit from manual iconic co-speech gestures. Here, we investigate to what extent younger and older adults benefit from perceiving both visual articulators while comprehending SiN, and whether this is modulated by working memory and inhibitory control. Twenty-eight younger and 28 older adults performed a word recognition task in three visual contexts: mouth blurred (speech-only), visible speech, or visible speech + iconic gesture. The speech signal was either clear or embedded in multitalker babble. Additionally, there were two visual-only conditions (visible speech, visible speech + gesture). Accuracy levels for both age groups were higher when both visual articulators were present compared to either one or none. However, older adults received a significantly smaller benefit than younger adults, although they performed equally well in speech-only and visual-only word recognition. Individual differences in verbal working memory and inhibitory control partly accounted for age-related performance differences. To conclude, perceiving iconic gestures in addition to visible speech improves younger and older adults' comprehension of SiN. Yet, the ability to benefit from this additional visual information is modulated by age and verbal working memory. Future research will have to show whether these findings extend beyond the single word level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louise Schubotz
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Judith Holler
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
| | - Linda Drijvers
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Aslı Özyürek
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, P.O. Box 310, 6500 AH, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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19
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Koelewijn T, Zekveld AA, Lunner T, Kramer SE. The effect of monetary reward on listening effort and sentence recognition. Hear Res 2021; 406:108255. [PMID: 33964552 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2021.108255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2020] [Revised: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Recently we showed that higher reward results in increased pupil dilation during listening (listening effort). Remarkably, this effect was not accompanied with improved speech reception. Still, increased listening effort may reflect more in-depth processing, potentially resulting in a better memory representation of speech. Here, we investigated this hypothesis by also testing the effect of monetary reward on recognition memory performance. Twenty-four young adults performed speech reception threshold (SRT) tests, either hard or easy, in which they repeated sentences uttered by a female talker masked by a male talker. We recorded the pupil dilation response during listening. Participants could earn a high or low reward and the four conditions were presented in a blocked fashion. After each SRT block, participants performed a visual sentence recognition task. In this task, the sentences that were presented in the preceding SRT task were visually presented in random order and intermixed with unfamiliar sentences. Participants had to indicate whether they had previously heard the sentence or not. The SRT and sentence recognition were affected by task difficulty but not by reward. Contrary to our previous results, peak pupil dilation did not reflect effects of reward. However, post-hoc time course analysis (GAMMs) revealed that in the hard SRT task, the pupil response was larger for high than low reward. We did not observe an effect of reward on visual sentence recognition. Hence, the current results provide no conclusive evidence that the effect of monetary reward on the pupil response relates to the memory encoding of speech.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Koelewijn
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck surgery, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Ear & Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, De Boelelaan 1117, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9700 RB Hanzeplein 1, Groningen 9713GZ, the Netherlands; Research School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
| | - Adriana A Zekveld
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck surgery, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Ear & Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, De Boelelaan 1117, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Thomas Lunner
- Eriksholm Research Centre, Snekkersten, Denmark; Department of Electrical Engineering, Hearing Systems, Hearing Systems group, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs., Lyngby, Denmark; Division of Technical Audiology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Sophia E Kramer
- Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck surgery, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Ear & Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, De Boelelaan 1117, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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20
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Kadem M, Herrmann B, Rodd JM, Johnsrude IS. Pupil Dilation Is Sensitive to Semantic Ambiguity and Acoustic Degradation. Trends Hear 2021; 24:2331216520964068. [PMID: 33124518 PMCID: PMC7607724 DOI: 10.1177/2331216520964068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Speech comprehension is challenged by background noise, acoustic interference, and linguistic factors, such as the presence of words with more than one meaning (homonyms and homophones). Previous work suggests that homophony in spoken language increases cognitive demand. Here, we measured pupil dilation—a physiological index of cognitive demand—while listeners heard high-ambiguity sentences, containing words with more than one meaning, or well-matched low-ambiguity sentences without ambiguous words. This semantic-ambiguity manipulation was crossed with an acoustic manipulation in two experiments. In Experiment 1, sentences were masked with 30-talker babble at 0 and +6 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and in Experiment 2, sentences were heard with or without a pink noise masker at –2 dB SNR. Speech comprehension was measured by asking listeners to judge the semantic relatedness of a visual probe word to the previous sentence. In both experiments, comprehension was lower for high- than for low-ambiguity sentences when SNRs were low. Pupils dilated more when sentences included ambiguous words, even when no noise was added (Experiment 2). Pupil also dilated more when SNRs were low. The effect of masking was larger than the effect of ambiguity for performance and pupil responses. This work demonstrates that the presence of homophones, a condition that is ubiquitous in natural language, increases cognitive demand and reduces intelligibility of speech heard with a noisy background.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mason Kadem
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,School of Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jennifer M Rodd
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Ingrid S Johnsrude
- Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.,School of Communication and Speech Disorders, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
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21
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McLaughlin DJ, Braver TS, Peelle JE. Measuring the Subjective Cost of Listening Effort Using a Discounting Task. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:337-347. [PMID: 33439751 PMCID: PMC8632478 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Objective measures of listening effort have been gaining prominence, as they provide metrics to quantify the difficulty of understanding speech under a variety of circumstances. A key challenge has been to develop paradigms that enable the complementary measurement of subjective listening effort in a quantitatively precise manner. In this study, we introduce a novel decision-making paradigm to examine age-related and individual differences in subjective effort during listening. Method Older and younger adults were presented with spoken sentences mixed with speech-shaped noise at multiple signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). On each trial, subjects were offered the choice between completing an easier listening trial (presented at +20 dB SNR) for a smaller monetary reward and completing a harder listening trial (presented at either +4, 0, -4, -8, or -12 dB SNR) for a greater monetary reward. By varying the amount of the reward offered for the easier option, the subjective value of performing effortful listening trials at each SNR could be assessed. Results Older adults discounted the value of effortful listening to a greater degree than young adults, opting to accept less money in order to avoid more difficult SNRs. Additionally, older adults with poorer hearing and smaller working memory capacities were more likely to choose easier trials; however, in younger adults, no relationship with hearing or working memory was found. Self-reported measures of economic status did not affect these relationships. Conclusions These findings suggest that subjective listening effort depends on factors including, but not necessarily limited to, hearing and working memory. Additionally, this study demonstrates that economic decision-making paradigms can be a useful approach for assessing subjective listening effort and may prove beneficial in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drew J. McLaughlin
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, MO
| | - Todd S. Braver
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, MO
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22
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Wasiuk PA, Radvansky GA, Greene RL, Calandruccio L. Spoken narrative comprehension for young adult listeners: effects of competing voices and noise. Int J Audiol 2021; 60:711-722. [PMID: 33586551 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2021.1878397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To examine the influence of competing voices or noise on the comprehension of spoken narratives for young adults. DESIGN First, an intelligibility assessment of the target narratives was conducted to establish a signal-to-noise ratio ensuring accurate initial speech recognition. Then, narrative comprehension for two target types (fixed and varied target talker) was measured in four listening conditions (quiet, one-talker speech, speech babble, speech-shaped noise). After hearing target narratives in each listening condition, participants completed a visual recognition memory task that assessed the comprehension of the narrative materials at three levels of representation (surface form, propositional, event model). STUDY SAMPLE Seventy adults (18-32 years of age). RESULTS Narrative comprehension results revealed a main effect of listening condition at the event model level, indicating poorer narrative memory of described situations for all noise conditions compared to quiet. Increased positive responses to thematically consistent but situationally "wrong" memory probes drove this effect. No other significant effects were observed. CONCLUSION Despite near-perfect speech recognition, background noise negatively influenced aspects of spoken narrative comprehension and memory. Specifically, noise did not disrupt memory for what was said (surface form and propositional memory), but only memory for what was talked about (event model memory).
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter A Wasiuk
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
| | | | - Robert L Greene
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
| | - Lauren Calandruccio
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
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23
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The impact of white matter hyperintensities on speech perception. Neurol Sci 2020; 41:1891-1898. [PMID: 32095945 DOI: 10.1007/s10072-020-04295-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2019] [Accepted: 02/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The presence of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) can impact on normal brain function by altering normal signal transmission and determining different symptoms. AIM To evaluate the relationship between the presence of brain WMHs and the scores of speech perception test (SPT) in a sample of normal-hearing patients under 70 years of age. MATERIAL AND METHOD Prospective study. One hundred eleven patients underwent audiological screening with pure tone audiometry (PTA), tympanometry, speech perception testing (SPT), and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). T2 sequences were analyzed to identify the presence of WMH that, if identified, were scored using the Fazekas score. Statistical multiple regression analysis was performed to understand the relationship between PTA and SPT score; the Pearson's and Spearman's tests were used to evaluate the correlation between Fazekas scores and SPT. Chi-square test was used to analyze the difference between gender. RESULTS The results of PTA were not predictive of the SPT score. A negative statistically significant correlation (Spearman's, p = 0.0001; Pearson's, p < 0.001) was identified between the Fazekas score and the results of SPT. No statistically significant differences were identified in the correlation of WMH and SPT between males and females. CONCLUSION Multiple WMHs in the brain can worsen word recognition in patients with normal auditory threshold; this may be related to the impact that these lesions have on the memory ability. Spread of lesions into the brain might reduce the brain capacity to remember words, despite the sound is correctly perceived by the ear.
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Farooqi ZUR, Sabir M, Latif J, Aslam Z, Ahmad HR, Ahmad I, Imran M, Ilić P. Assessment of noise pollution and its effects on human health in industrial hub of Pakistan. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2020; 27:2819-2828. [PMID: 31836979 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-019-07105-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/19/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Faisalabad is one of the major industrial cities of Pakistan, which may cause noise pollution to the local residents due to the development of robust industrial and transport systems. This study aimed at (i) mapping the noise pollution levels at various locations of Faisalabad city; (ii) comparing noise pollution levels in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening for each source; and (iii) assessing nonauditory effects of noise on human health. Two industries and 43 famous/busy locations of Faisalabad Sadar were selected to study noise pollution by using the sound level meter for the period of 24 h. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out near the sampling points to get a public perception about the health impacts of noise pollution. The measured equivalent sound pressure levels (SPLeq) were higher than the permissible limits at all the sampling locations during morning, afternoon, and evening hours. The maximum sound pressure level (SPLmax) was 102 dB inside the production unit in the afternoon at Mian Muhammad Siddiq Textile Loom industry. The average SPL was found at State Bank road (102 dB), Children's Hospital (101 dB), Jhang Bazar (100 dB) in the afternoon and at Punjab Medical College in the evening (97 dB). Based on the survey, 94% of respondents reported headache, 76% sleeplessness, 74% hypertension, 74% physiological stress, 64% elevated blood pressure levels, and 60% dizziness due to noise. Noise pollution is higher than the standard limits and causes auditory as well as nonauditory effects on humans. The vehicles and industrial machinery should be maintained, and sound proofing and protection equipment should be provided to the workforce in order to protect them from extreme noise levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zia Ur Rahman Farooqi
- Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
| | - Muhammad Sabir
- Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
| | - Junaid Latif
- Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
- North West A&F University, Shaanxi Sheng, 712100, China
| | - Zubair Aslam
- Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
| | - Hamaad Raza Ahmad
- Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan
| | - Iftikhar Ahmad
- Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Vehari, 61100, Pakistan.
| | - Muhammad Imran
- Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University, Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Vehari, 61100, Pakistan
| | - Predrag Ilić
- Institute for Protection and Ecology of the Republic of Srpska, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
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25
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Vermeire K, Knoop A, De Sloovere M, Bosch P, van den Noort M. Relationship Between Working Memory and Speech-in-Noise Recognition in Young and Older Adult Listeners With Age-Appropriate Hearing. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2019; 62:3545-3553. [PMID: 31433720 DOI: 10.1044/2019_jslhr-h-18-0307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between working memory (WM) capacity and speech recognition in noise in both a group of young adults and a group of older adults. Method Thirty-three older adults with a mean age of 71.0 (range: 60.4-82.7) years and 27 young adults with a mean age of 21.7 (range: 19.1-25.0) years participated in the study. All participants had age-appropriate hearing and no history of central nervous system dysfunction. WM capacity was measured using the van den Noort version of the Reading Span Test, and recognition of sentences in the presence of a stationary speech-shaped noise was measured as the speech reception threshold for 50% correct identification by using the Leuven Intelligibility Sentence Test. Results The older adults had significantly worse WM capacity scores, t(58) = 8.266, p < .001, and significantly more difficulty understanding sentences in noise than the younger adults, t(58) = -6.068, p < .001. In the group of older adults, a correlation was found (r = -.488, n = 33, p = .004) between the results of the WM capacity test (Reading Span Test) and the results of the speech-recognition-in-noise test (Leuven Intelligibility Sentence Test), meaning that the higher the WM performance was, the better was the speech recognition in noise. This correlation cannot be found in young normal-hearing listeners. Conclusions This study shows deleterious effects of age on both WM capacity and speech recognition in noise. Interestingly, only in the group of older adults was a significant relation found between WM capacity and speech recognition in noise. The current results caution against the assumption that WM necessarily supports speech-in-noise identification independently of the age and hearing status of the listener.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrien Vermeire
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
- Department of Speech Language Therapy and Audiology, Thomas More University College, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Allart Knoop
- Department of Speech Language Therapy and Audiology, Thomas More University College, Antwerp, Belgium
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Marleen De Sloovere
- Department of Speech Language Therapy and Audiology, Thomas More University College, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Peggy Bosch
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Maurits van den Noort
- Research Group of Pain and Neuroscience, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Roque L, Karawani H, Gordon-Salant S, Anderson S. Effects of Age, Cognition, and Neural Encoding on the Perception of Temporal Speech Cues. Front Neurosci 2019; 13:749. [PMID: 31379494 PMCID: PMC6659127 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2018] [Accepted: 07/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Older adults commonly report difficulty understanding speech, particularly in adverse listening environments. These communication difficulties may exist in the absence of peripheral hearing loss. Older adults, both with normal hearing and with hearing loss, demonstrate temporal processing deficits that affect speech perception. The purpose of the present study is to investigate aging, cognition, and neural processing factors that may lead to deficits on perceptual tasks that rely on phoneme identification based on a temporal cue - vowel duration. A better understanding of the neural and cognitive impairments underlying temporal processing deficits could lead to more focused aural rehabilitation for improved speech understanding for older adults. This investigation was conducted in younger (YNH) and older normal-hearing (ONH) participants who completed three measures of cognitive functioning known to decline with age: working memory, processing speed, and inhibitory control. To evaluate perceptual and neural processing of auditory temporal contrasts, identification functions for the contrasting word-pair WHEAT and WEED were obtained on a nine-step continuum of vowel duration, and frequency-following responses (FFRs) and cortical auditory-evoked potentials (CAEPs) were recorded to the two endpoints of the continuum. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the cognitive, peripheral, and/or central mechanisms that may contribute to perceptual performance. YNH participants demonstrated higher cognitive functioning on all three measures compared to ONH participants. The slope of the identification function was steeper in YNH than in ONH participants, suggesting a clearer distinction between the contrasting words in the YNH participants. FFRs revealed better response waveform morphology and more robust phase-locking in YNH compared to ONH participants. ONH participants also exhibited earlier latencies for CAEP components compared to the YNH participants. Linear regression analyses revealed that cortical processing significantly contributed to the variance in perceptual performance in the WHEAT/WEED identification functions. These results suggest that reduced neural precision contributes to age-related speech perception difficulties that arise from temporal processing deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lindsey Roque
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Hanin Karawani
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States.,Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Sandra Gordon-Salant
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Samira Anderson
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, United States
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27
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Di Stadio A, Dipietro L, Toffano R, Burgio F, De Lucia A, Ippolito V, Garofalo S, Ricci G, Martines F, Trabalzini F, Della Volpe A. Working Memory Function in Children with Single Side Deafness Using a Bone-Anchored Hearing Implant: A Case-Control Study. Audiol Neurootol 2018; 23:238-244. [PMID: 30439708 DOI: 10.1159/000493722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 09/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The importance of a good hearing function to preserve memory and cognitive abilities has been shown in the adult population, but studies on the pediatric population are currently lacking. This study aims at evaluating the effects of a bone-anchored hearing implant (BAHI) on speech perception, speech processing, and memory abilities in children with single side deafness (SSD). We enrolled n = 25 children with SSD and assessed them prior to BAHI implantation, and at 1-month and 3-month follow-ups after BAHI implantation using tests of perception in silence and perception in phonemic confusion, dictation in silence and noise, and working memory and short-term memory function in conditions of silence and noise. We also enrolled and evaluated n = 15 children with normal hearing. We found a statistically significant difference in performance between healthy children and children with SSD before BAHI implantation in the scores of all tests. After 3 months from BAHI implantation, the per-formance of children with SSD was comparable to that of healthy subjects as assessed by tests of speech perception, working memory, and short-term memory function in silence condition, while differences persisted in the scores of the dictation test (both in silence and noise conditions) and of the working memory function test in noise condition. Our data suggest that in children with SSD BAHI improves speech perception and memory. Speech rehabilitation may be necessary to further improve speech processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arianna Di Stadio
- Neurology and Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS, San Camillo Hospital, Venice, Italy,
| | | | - Roberta Toffano
- Neurology and Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS, San Camillo Hospital, Venice, Italy
| | - Francesca Burgio
- Neurology and Neuropsychology Unit, IRCCS, San Camillo Hospital, Venice, Italy
| | - Antonietta De Lucia
- Cochlear Implant Unit, Children Hospital Santobono-Pausilipon, Naples, Italy
| | - Valentina Ippolito
- Cochlear Implant Unit, Children Hospital Santobono-Pausilipon, Naples, Italy
| | - Sabina Garofalo
- Cochlear Implant Unit, Children Hospital Santobono-Pausilipon, Naples, Italy
| | - Giampietro Ricci
- Otolaryngology Department, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
| | | | | | - Antonio Della Volpe
- Cochlear Implant Unit, Children Hospital Santobono-Pausilipon, Naples, Italy
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28
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Keerstock S, Smiljanić R. Effects of intelligibility on within- and cross-modal sentence recognition memory for native and non-native listeners. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 144:2871. [PMID: 30522310 DOI: 10.1121/1.5078589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2018] [Accepted: 10/25/2018] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
The goal of the study was to examine whether enhancing the clarity of the speech signal through conversational-to-clear speech modifications improves sentence recognition memory for native and non-native listeners, and if so, whether this effect would hold when the stimuli in the test phase are presented in orthographic instead of auditory form (cross-modal presentation). Sixty listeners (30 native and 30 non-native English) participated in a within-modal (i.e., audio-audio) sentence recognition memory task (Experiment I). Sixty different individuals (30 native and 30 non-native English) participated in a cross-modal (i.e., audio-textual) sentence recognition memory task (Experiment II). The results showed that listener-oriented clear speech enhanced sentence recognition memory for both listener groups regardless of whether the acoustic signal was present during the test phase (Experiment I) or absent (Experiment II). Compared to native listeners, non-native listeners had longer reaction times in the within-modal task and were overall less accurate in the cross-modal task. The results showed that more cognitive resources remained available for storing information in memory during processing of easier-to-understand clearly produced sentences. Furthermore, non-native listeners benefited from signal clarity in sentence recognition memory despite processing speech signals in a cognitively more demanding second language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandie Keerstock
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - Rajka Smiljanić
- Department of Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
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Winn MB, Wendt D, Koelewijn T, Kuchinsky SE. Best Practices and Advice for Using Pupillometry to Measure Listening Effort: An Introduction for Those Who Want to Get Started. Trends Hear 2018; 22:2331216518800869. [PMID: 30261825 PMCID: PMC6166306 DOI: 10.1177/2331216518800869] [Citation(s) in RCA: 113] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2018] [Revised: 08/07/2018] [Accepted: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Within the field of hearing science, pupillometry is a widely used method for quantifying listening effort. Its use in research is growing exponentially, and many labs are (considering) applying pupillometry for the first time. Hence, there is a growing need for a methods paper on pupillometry covering topics spanning from experiment logistics and timing to data cleaning and what parameters to analyze. This article contains the basic information and considerations needed to plan, set up, and interpret a pupillometry experiment, as well as commentary about how to interpret the response. Included are practicalities like minimal system requirements for recording a pupil response and specifications for peripheral, equipment, experiment logistics and constraints, and different kinds of data processing. Additional details include participant inclusion and exclusion criteria and some methodological considerations that might not be necessary in other auditory experiments. We discuss what data should be recorded and how to monitor the data quality during recording in order to minimize artifacts. Data processing and analysis are considered as well. Finally, we share insights from the collective experience of the authors and discuss some of the challenges that still lie ahead.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew B. Winn
- Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences,
University
of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Dorothea Wendt
- Eriksholm Research Centre, Snekkersten,
Denmark
- Hearing Systems, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby,
Denmark
| | - Thomas Koelewijn
- Section Ear & Hearing, Department of
Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, VU
University Medical Center, the Netherlands
| | - Stefanie E. Kuchinsky
- National Military Audiology and Speech
Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD,
USA
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