scholarly journals Listening Effort Measured in Adults with Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implants

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (08) ◽  
pp. 685-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann E. Perreau ◽  
Yu-Hsiang Wu ◽  
Bailey Tatge ◽  
Diana Irwin ◽  
Daniel Corts
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Listening Effort ◽  
Significant Difference

AbstractStudies have examined listening effort in individuals with hearing loss to determine the extent of the impairment. Regarding cochlear implants (CIs), results suggest that listening effort is improved using bilateral CIs compared to unilateral CIs. Few studies have investigated listening effort and outcomes related to the hybrid CI.Here, we compared listening effort across three CI groups, and to a normal-hearing control group. The impact of listener traits, that is, age, age at onset of hearing loss, duration of CI use, and working memory capacity, were examined relative to listening effort.The participants completed a dual-task paradigm with a primary task identifying sentences in noise and a secondary task measuring reaction time on a Stroop test. Performance was assessed for all participant groups at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), ranging in 2-dB steps from 0 to +10 dB relative to an individual’s SNR-50, at which the speech recognition performance is 50% correct. Participants completed three questions on listening effort, the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire, and a reading span test.All 46 participants were adults. The four participant groups included (1) 12 individuals with normal hearing, (2) 10 with unilateral CIs, (3) 12 with bilateral CIs, and (4) 12 with a hybrid short-electrode CI and bilateral residual hearing.Results from the dual-task experiment were compared using a mixed 4 (hearing group) by 6 (SNR condition) analysis of variance (ANOVA). Questionnaire results were compared using one-way ANOVAs, and correlations between listener traits and the objective and subjective measures were compared using Pearson correlation coefficients.Significant differences were found in speech perception among the normal-hearing and the unilateral and the bilateral CI groups. There was no difference in primary task performance among the hybrid CI and the normal-hearing groups. Across the six SNR conditions, listening effort improved to a greater degree for the normal-hearing group compared to the CI groups. However, there was no significant difference in listening effort between the CI groups. The subjective measures revealed significant differences between the normal-hearing and CI groups, but no difference among the three CI groups. Across all groups, age was significantly correlated with listening effort. We found no relationship between listening effort and the age at the onset of hearing loss, age at implantation, the duration of CI use, and working memory capacity for these participants.Listening effort was reduced to a greater degree for the normal-hearing group compared to the CI users. There was no significant difference in listening effort among the CI groups. For the CI users in this study, age was a significant factor with regard to listening effort, whereas other variables such as the duration of CI use and the age at the onset of hearing loss were not significantly related to listening effort.

scholarly journals Noise increases listening effort in normal-hearing young adults, regardless of working memory capacity (preprint, Dec 2018)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Feld Strand
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Listening Effort ◽  
Listening Task ◽  
The Relationship

As listening conditions worsen (e.g., background noise increases), additional cognitive effort is required to process speech. The existing literature is mixed on whether and how cognitive traits like working memory capacity moderate the amount of effort that listeners must expend to successfully understand speech. Here, we validate a dual-task measure of listening effort (Experiment 1) and demonstrate that, for normal-hearing young adults, effort increases as listening conditions worsen, but working memory capacity is unrelated to the amount of effort expended (Experiment 2). We propose that previous research may have overestimated the relationship between listening effort and working memory capacity by measuring listening effort using recall-based tasks, but the relationship between the two disappears when using a measure of listening effort that does not require recall. These results suggest caution in making the general assumption that working memory capacity is related to the amount of effort expended during a listening task.

Bilingual working memory capacity of professional Auslan / English interpreters

Interpreting ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Span Task ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Strong Positive Correlation ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Span Tasks ◽  
Native Signers

This study investigated bilingual working memory capacity (WMC) of 31 professional Auslan (Australian Sign Language)/English interpreters: 14 native signers and 17 non-native signers. Participants completed an English listening span task and then an Auslan working memory (WM) span task, each task followed by a brief interview. The native signers were similar to the non-native signers not only in English WMC, but also in Auslan WMC. There was no significant difference between WMC in English and Auslan when native and non-native signers were assessed as a single group. The study also found a moderate to strong, positive correlation between the interpreters’ English WMC and Auslan WMC, suggesting that both WM span tasks tapped into similar cognitive resources. In the interviews, interpreters said that they used multiple strategies to retain the to-be-remembered words/signs. The qualitative data also indicate that WM span tasks like these involve online retention of unrelated words/signs, whereas simultaneous interpreting requires temporary storage of meaningful and coherent concepts.

scholarly journals Production of Greek vowels by hearing-impaired children

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina Nirgianaki ◽  
Maria Bitzanaki
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
High Dimension ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Impaired Group ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Hearing Impaired Children

The present study investigates the acoustic characteristics of Greek vowels produced by hearing-impaired children with profound prelingual hearing loss and cochlear implants. The results revealed a significant difference between vowels produced by hearingimpaired children and those produced by normal-hearing ones in terms of duration. Stressed vowels were significantly longer than non-stressed for both groups, while F0, F1 and F2 did not differ significantly between the two groups for any vowel, with the exception of /a/, which had significantly higher F1 when produced by hearingimpaired children. Acoustic vowel spaces were similar for the two groups but shifted towards higher frequencies in the low-high dimension and somehow reduced in the front-back dimension for the hearing-impaired group.

scholarly journals Approximate Number Sense in Students With Severe Hearing Loss: A Modality-Neutral Cognitive Ability

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailin Ma ◽  
Xiaoou Bu ◽  
Emily M. Sanford ◽  
Tongao Zeng ◽  
Justin Halberda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Verbal Iq ◽  
Mathematics Ability ◽  
Mathematics Abilities

The Approximate Number System (ANS) allows humans and non-human animals to estimate large quantities without counting. It is most commonly studied in visual contexts (i.e., with displays containing different numbers of dots), although the ANS may operate on all approximate quantities regardless of modality (e.g., estimating the number of a series of auditory tones). Previous research has shown that there is a link between ANS and mathematics abilities, and that this link is resilient to differences in visual experience (Kanjlia et al., 2018). However, little is known about the function of the ANS and its relationship to mathematics abilities in the absence of other types of sensory input. Here, we investigated the acuity of the ANS and its relationship with mathematics abilities in a group of students from the Sichuan Province in China, half of whom were deaf. We found, consistent with previous research, that ANS acuity improves with age. We found that mathematics ability was predicted by Non-verbal IQ and Inhibitory Control, but not visual working memory capacity or Attention Network efficiencies. Even above and beyond these predictors, ANS ability still accounted for unique variance in mathematics ability. Notably, there was no interaction with hearing, which indicates that the role played by the ANS in explaining mathematics competence is not modulated by hearing capacity. Finally, we found that age, Non-verbal IQ and Visual Working Memory capacity were predictive of ANS performance when controlling for other factors. In fact, although students with hearing loss performed slightly worse than students with normal hearing on the ANS task, hearing was no longer significantly predictive of ANS performance once other factors were taken into account. These results indicate that the ANS is able to develop at a consistent pace with other cognitive abilities in the absence of auditory experience, and that its relationship with mathematics ability is not contingent on sensory input from hearing.

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