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Evaluating the effort expended to understand speech in noise using a dual-task paradigm: The effects of providing visual speech cues

Jean-Pierre Gagné
Majolaine Alepins
Pascale Dubois
École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, CANADA
Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de geriatrie de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, CANADA

The corresponding author for this manuscript is Sarah Fraser. She can be reached as follows: sfraser{at}live.concordia.ca

Purpose: Using a dual-task paradigm, two experiments (Expt. 1 & 2) were conducted to assess differences in the amount of listening effort expended to understand speech in noise in audio-visual (AV) and audio-only (A-only) modalities. Expt. 1 had equivalent noise levels in both modalities and Expt. 2 equated speech recognition performance levels by increasing the noise in the AV versus A-only modality.

Method: Sixty adults were randomly assigned to Expt. 1 or 2. Participants performed speech and tactile recognition tasks separately (single tasks) and concurrently (dual task). The speech tasks were performed in both modalities. Accuracy and reaction time data were collected as well as ratings of perceived accuracy and effort.

Results: In Expt.1, the AV modality speech recognition was rated as less effortful and accuracy scores were higher than A-only. In Expt.2, reaction times were slower, tactile task performance was poorer, and listening effort increased, in the AV versus the A-only modality.

Conclusions: At equivalent noise levels, speech recognition performance is enhanced and subjectively less effortful in the AV than A-only modality. At equivalent accuracy levels, the dual task performance decrements (for both tasks) suggest that the noisier AV modality was more effortful than the A-only modality.

KEY WORDS: Speech recognition, Listening Effort, Dual-task paradigm, Audio and Audio-visual speech cues in noise, Processing capacity

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