Impact of speech presentation level on cognitive task performance: implications for auditory display design

Abstract

Speech displays and verbal response technologies are increasingly being used in complex, high workload environments that require the simultaneous performance of visual and manual tasks. Examples of such environments include the flight decks of modern aircraft, advanced transport telematics systems providing invehicle route guidance and navigational information and mobile communication equipment in emergency and public safety vehicles. Previous research has established an optimum range for speech intelligibility. However, the potential for variations in presentation levels within this range to affect attentional resources and cognitive processing of speech material has not been examined previously. Results of the current experimental investigation demonstrate that as presentation level increases within this 'optimum' range, participants in high workload situations make fewer sentence-processing errors and generally respond faster. Processing errors were more sensitive to changes in presentation level than were measures of reaction time. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of their application for the design of speech communications displays in complex multi-task environments.

An Overview of Dual Sensory Impairment in Older Adults: Perspectives for Rehabilitation

“…Other studies have shown that deficits in working memory affect the ability of older individuals to understand timecompressed speech, 63 while other authors report that interhemispheric processing is disrupted as a result of the aging process 56 and that older adults are disadvantaged in dual-task conditions if hearing thresholds are increased even 10 dB. 64 The findings with regard to the interrelationship between visual performance and cognition are, in many ways, similar to the findings reported between hearing and cognition. Visual impairment has been shown by some 65,66 to be a risk factor for cognitive decline among the elderly.…”

The Impact of Noise and Hearing Loss on the Processing of Simultaneous Sentences

“…This supports the idea that sensory degradation, not increased confusion between the streams, is responsible for the dramatic effect of noise on recall of M2. In related recent work, it has been suggested that reduced absolute signal level (in the absence of noise) can also disrupt echoic persistence and hence performance on a secondary task (Baldwin and Struckman-Johnson 2002; Baldwin 2007). …”

Cloze probability and completion norms for 498 sentences: Behavioral and neural validation using event-related potentials

“…For example, sentence sets with high cloze values allow an accumulation of context that will facilitate the elicitation of robust N400. Utilization of language materials such as the present set can also assist in understanding the relative influence of sensory and cognitive processes, and the susceptibility of these processes to age-related changes (Baldwin, 2007;Baldwin & Struckman-Johnson, 2002). The expanded database of high cloze probability sentences presented here will allow the use of standardized materials to facilitate comparisons across investigations for many years to come.…”