Age Affects Speech Understanding and Multitask Costs

Devesse, Annelies; Wouters, Jan; Wieringen, Astrid Van

doi:10.1097/aud.0000000000000848

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Noteworthy, differences in secondary task performance between participants might be more apparent under the SPIN+5dB condition compared to SPIN50%, given that performance on the main listening task is equalized under the SPIN50% condition. However, previous research showed that, even when speech understanding performance was equalized between participants, group differences in secondary task performance were still apparent (Devesse et al 2020b).…”

Section: The Cost Of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cognitive Demands On Aud...mentioning

confidence: 96%

“…As a primary aim, we investigated the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic cognitive demands on auditory perception and multitask costs by means of a behavioral multitasking paradigm that mimicked auditory spatial complexity and visual (speech) cues, called 'Audio-Visual True-to-life Assessment of Auditory Rehabilitation' (AVATAR). AVATAR previously proved to be a promising ecologically relevant model to provide a full picture of auditory functioning, that is, to assess both auditory performance and the amount of processing resources during effortful listening (Devesse et al 2019;Devesse et al 2020). Second, we investigated whether older adults with NH differed from hearing impaired adults using hearing aids (HA) on auditory abilities and secondary task performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Cost of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cognitive Demands on Auditory Functioning in Older Adults With Normal Hearing or Using Hearing Aids

2020

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Objectives: We investigated the impact of both intrinsic and extrinsic cognitive demands on auditory and secondary task performance in older adults with normal hearing (NH) and adults using hearing aids (HAs) in an ecologically relevant listening environment.Design: Fifteen adults with NH and 15 adults using HAs(60 to 72 years of age) were recruited to perform the 'Audio-Visual True-to-Life Assessment of Auditory Rehabilitation'-paradigm (AVATAR), which combines an auditory-visual speech-in-noise task with three secondary tasks on either auditory localization or visual short-term memory in a preload multitask paradigm. Intrinsic demands were altered by presenting speech either at equivalent speech accuracy levels of 50% correct (SPIN50%) or equivalent speech-to-noise ratios of +5dB SNR (SPIN+5dB). We manipulated the amount of extrinsic cognitive demands by including one (dual-condition) or three secondary tasks (quadruple-condition). Performance decrements on the secondary tasks were considered to reflect an increase in resource allocation to speech understanding and thus increased listening effort. In addition, we administered a cognitive test battery as well as a questionnaire on self-reported hearing difficulties and subjective measures of effort and motivation.Results: Speech understanding and secondary task performance on the visual short-term memory task were lower in the SPIN50%-condition compared to SPIN+5dB. Whereas speech understanding at SPIN50% was equally high in the dual-and quadruple-conditions, the quadruple-condition resulted in lower secondary task performance on the visual short-term memory task, higher levels of self-reported effort and lower motivation compared to the dualtask condition. The same was true for experimental conditions at SPIN+5dB. Additionally, adults with NH outperformed adults using HAs on speech understanding, auditory localization and self-reported hearing abilities, but no group differences were observed on secondary task costs or cognitive measures.2 Conclusions: This study showed that, irrespective of the hearing status of the listener, speech performance was not affected by the amount of extrinsic cognitive demands, but was worse and required more effort in conditions with a more negative SNR. Also, increasing the extrinsic cognitive demands resulted in lower performance on one of the secondary tasks, suggesting that more complex listening environments require more effort. Although adults with NH outperformed HA users on speech understanding and auditory localization, the two groups did not differ with respect to secondary task costs.

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Section: The Cost Of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cognitive Demands On Aud...mentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cost of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cognitive Demands on Auditory Functioning in Older Adults With Normal Hearing or Using Hearing Aids

2020

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“…AVATAR was developed by Devesse and colleagues [1][2][3][4] to investigate the impact of multiple tasks on speech perception in noise (SPIN). It consists of a program which displays a computer-graphics environment with virtual human figures (see Fig.…”

Section: Avatarmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The virtual humans can be made to animate their mouths realistically in synchrony with audio material being presented by a separate program. This paradigm has proven successful in eliciting audiovisual benefit [2]. In addition to the SPIN task, three other tasks can be added: a localization task, wherein a phone rings in one of the five possible speaker locations, and the participant is asked to indicate which direction the ringing had come from; a dynamic task, wherein the sound of a fly passing from left to right or from right to left is presented, and the participant is asked to indicate which direction it had gone; and a visual task, wherein participants were required to remember a number present on the scene and which changes between trials.…”

Section: Avatarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech-perception-in-noise and Cognition in a Realistic Listening Scenario

Porto,

Wouters,

Van Wieringen

2022

Proceedings of the 10th Convention of the European Acoustics Association Forum Acusticum 2023

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Understanding speech in noise is an everyday task for adults and children alike. Many factors are known to affect how well one can understand speech in the presence of background noise, such as sound levels and spatial separation of speech and noise sources. Cognitive factors such as attention and working memory are also understood to play a role, but how these factors' effect on speech understanding in noise develops in children is not well understood, particularly in the case of children with hearing loss. As a first step towards shedding light on these questions, we developed a paradigm that aims to recruit attention and working memory in a speech-in-noise task by requiring participants to switch or maintain attention to different speakers in a realistic scene. Here, we present the first set of data as a validation of the paradigm and discuss the implications of its results.

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“…Results showed that LE increased initially in the fourth decade of life and was related to the cognitive attribute of speech recognition in degraded listening conditions. Devesse et al (2020) were among the few studies that focused specifically on participants in the age range of 45-60 years. The performance of 29 middle-aged adults was compared to that of 35 young adults in auditory-visual speech-in noise task that combined dual, triple, and quadruple secondary tasks, to approximate real life situations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Clinical Paradigm for Listening Effort Assessment in Middle-Aged Listeners

2022

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Listening effort (LE) has been known to characterize speech recognition in noise regardless of hearing sensitivity and age. Whereas the behavioral measure of dual-task paradigm effectively manifests the cognitive cost that listeners exert when processing speech in background noise, there is no consensus as to a clinical procedure that might best express LE. In order to assess the cognitive load underlying speech recognition in noise and promote counselling for coping strategies, a feasible clinical paradigm is warranted. The ecological validity of such a paradigm might best be demonstrated in middle-aged adults, exhibiting intact hearing sensitivity on one hand, however, experiencing difficulties in degraded listening conditions, unaware of the implicated cognitive cost of speech recognition in noise. To this end, we constructed a dual-task paradigm that consists of a primary task of sentences-in-noise recognition and a secondary task of simple visual colored-shape matching. Research objective was to develop a clinical paradigm for the assessment of LE in middle-aged adults. Participants were 17 middle-aged adults (mean age of 52.81 years) and 23 young adults (mean age of 24.90 years). All participants had normal hearing according to age. Speech stimuli consisted of the Hebrew Matrix sentences in noise test. SRTn was obtained for 80% correct identification. Visual stimuli were colored geometric shapes. Outcome measures were obtained initially for each task separately, to establish performance ability, and then obtained simultaneously. Reaction time and accuracy in the secondary task were the defined metrics for LE. Results: LE was indicated for both groups, however, was more pronounced in the middle-aged, manifested in the visual accuracy and reaction time metrics. Both groups maintained the 80% correct recognition-in-noise in the dual-task, however, the middle-aged group necessitated a better SNR of 1.4dB than the normal hearing group. Moreover, the middle-aged group was taxed in a greater prolongation of reaction time, in order to uphold the correct recognition. Conclusion: a dual-task paradigm consisting of sentences-in-noise primary task combined with a simple secondary task successfully showed different manifestations of LE in middle-aged adults compared to young adults, thus approximating the use of such a paradigm in a clinical setting.

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Age Affects Speech Understanding and Multitask Costs

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

The Cost of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cognitive Demands on Auditory Functioning in Older Adults With Normal Hearing or Using Hearing Aids

The Cost of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cognitive Demands on Auditory Functioning in Older Adults With Normal Hearing or Using Hearing Aids

Speech-perception-in-noise and Cognition in a Realistic Listening Scenario

A Clinical Paradigm for Listening Effort Assessment in Middle-Aged Listeners

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