Three New Outcome Measures That Tap Into Cognitive Processes Required for Real-Life Communication.
Thomas Lunner, Emina Alickovic, Carina Graversen and 3 others
PMID 33105258WHAT IT FOUND
Three new hearing tests (SWIR, neural tracking, pupillometry) measure working memory, attention, and effort.
They detect noise reduction benefits at realistic listening levels where standard speech tests hit ceiling. None are standardized yet.
Key findings
01The SWIR test assesses working memory by asking listeners to identify and then recall final words of sentences at realistic signal-to-noise ratios.
02Neural tracking via EEG objectively measures whether a listener is attending to a specific talker in a multi-talker environment.
03Pupillometry measures listening effort and can reveal cognitive load differences even when speech recognition scores remain unchanged.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
None of the three measures are standardized for clinical use. The SWIR test can become insensitive if the list length exceeds the individual's working memory capacity. Neural tracking tasks may not distinguish between simply hearing a voice and understanding the speech content. Pupillometry is sensitive to lighting conditions and may reflect disengagement rather than low effort in very difficult tasks.
Declared interests
The article acknowledges support from non-U.S. government sources but does not list specific commercial funding or author conflicts of interest in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these tests are ready for clinical diagnosis or routine use. The review explicitly states that none of the three measures are standardized, and their sensitivity depends heavily on task parameters like list length in SWIR or lighting in pupillometry.