Assessing and Modeling Spatial Release From Listening Effort in Listeners With Normal Hearing: Reference Ranges and Effects of Noise Direction and Age.
Melanie Krueger, Michael Schulte, Thomas Brand
PMID 36285532WHAT IT FOUND
Normal-hearing listeners reported less listening effort when noise came from the side (135°) than from the front, with the benefit larger in difficult listening conditions.
Age did not significantly change these effort ratings, though older listeners showed steeper effort increases in very difficult conditions.
Key findings
01Spatial separation of noise reduced perceived listening effort, with the greatest benefit at 135° azimuth.
02Age did not significantly affect perceived listening effort ratings, although older listeners had steeper effort slopes in difficult conditions.
03The ACALES test showed good test-retest reliability, with standard deviations between 1.0 and 2.4 dB.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used stationary speech-shaped noise, which does not reflect the complexity of real-world multi-talker environments. Participants had normal hearing, so results may not apply to those with hearing loss. The test used semantically unpredictable sentences, which may not capture effort related to cognitive processing of meaningful speech. One participant was excluded due to equipment error, reducing the final sample size to 69.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by non-U.S. government funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that spatial separation eliminates listening effort in difficult conditions. The benefit was smaller than the benefit for speech intelligibility, and effort remained high in negative SNR conditions even with optimal noise placement.