Perceptual Learning of Noise-Vocoded Speech Under Divided Attention.
Han Wang, Rongru Chen, Yu Yan and 3 others
PMID 37547940WHAT IT FOUND
Young normal-hearing listeners improved their recognition of degraded speech over 40 trials even while performing concurrent visual, phonological, or lexical tasks.
The hard visual task slowed early performance but did not stop learning. The phonological task unexpectedly boosted overall speech recognition.
Key findings
01Perceptual learning of noise-vocoded speech occurred in all conditions, including those with concurrent visual, phonological, or lexical tasks.
02The hardest visual task resulted in lower overall speech accuracy compared to easier tasks and the single-task baseline.
03Speech recognition was significantly more accurate when paired with a phonological secondary task than with visual, lexical, or single-task conditions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included 40 trials, which may not capture the full course of perceptual learning, as performance was still improving at the end of the session. All participants were young (18-35 years) and had normal hearing, so the results may not apply to older adults or those with hearing impairment. The experiments were conducted online, which introduces variability in the testing environment, although participants were screened for noise and equipment. The finding that a phonological task boosted speech recognition was unexpected and the authors note it requires further investigation to confirm the mechanism.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The research was supported by non-U.S. government funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that adding a phonological task to therapy will improve speech recognition in patients with hearing loss. This effect was found in young normal-hearing adults and the authors state the mechanism is unclear and needs further study. Additionally, do not expect these results to apply to older adults or those with hearing impairment, as they were not included in the study.