Imperfect Captions Paired to Audiovisual Stimuli Improve Speech Recognition but Do Not Reduce Listening-Related Fatigue.
Katie Esser, Erin M Picou, Benjamin W Y Hornsby
PMID 40802543WHAT IT FOUND
Imperfect captions improved speech recognition but increased subjective fatigue and slowed response times in young adults with normal hearing.
The benefit to understanding came at a cost to effort. Clinicians should warn patients that automated captions may make listening more tiring, not less.
Key findings
01Participants with access to imperfect captions scored significantly higher on speech recognition (77%) than those without captions (63%).
02Subjective fatigue ratings increased more in the caption group (36.36 points) than in the no-caption group (20 points) over the course of the task.
03Response times to topic words slowed significantly for the caption group in the final block, indicating increased behavioral listening effort.
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 a between-groups design, which has lower statistical power than repeated-measures designs. Participants had normal hearing, so results may not apply to those with hearing loss. The captions were specifically 'imperfect' (delayed and missing words), which may not reflect high-quality CART services. The test environment was quiet, which may not represent the noisy conditions where captions are most often used.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Funding was provided by NIH/NIDCD.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that all captioning reduces listening effort. This study shows that imperfect, delayed captions increased subjective fatigue and slowed response times, even though they improved speech recognition accuracy. High-quality, time-locked captions may have different effects.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →