Split listening: A cognitive investigation of speech perception in adverse conditions

分裂聆听：不利条件下言语感知的认知调查

基本信息

批准号：
ES/W010488/1
负责人：
Sven Mattys
金额：
$ 61.13万
依托单位：
University of York
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2023 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FW010488%2F1
关键词：
Split listening cognitive investigation speech

项目摘要

"Cognitive Listening" refers to the study of how memory and attention processes contribute to speech perception in challenging conditions (e.g., noise, distraction). The claim that good cognitive abilities underpin successful listening is broadly confirmed for older and/or hearing-impaired listeners. In those groups, high working memory (WM) capacity is associated with better performance in speech-in-noise tasks. For young adults with normal hearing, however, the link between cognition and listening proficiency is unclear. There are four reasons for this: (1) Young, normal-hearing adults might not generate sufficient individual variability on cognitive measures to detect reliable associations with listening performance. A majority of experiments are, thus, under-powered. Cognitive listening studies therefore need to be run with larger samples.(2) Most studies have focused on adverse conditions involving energetic masking (EM), that is, conditions in which the signal is degraded (e.g., background noise). Evidence suggests that cognition is of little help for tasks that are intrinsically "data-limited". Cognitive listening should therefore also be investigated when challenges arise from a non-EM source.(3) Semantic context can mitigate the effects of adverse listening conditions, hence making cognitive support redundant or difficult to detect. Semantic context should therefore be taken into account when modelling cognitive listening.(4) Listening performance (e.g., number of words in a sentence that are correctly recognised) may not be the most sensitive measure of how cognitive functions support listening because a given performance level can hide meaningful differences in individual cognitive effort. A measure of mental effort should therefore be included when modelling cognitive listening. The aim of this project is to systematically address the above challenges and provide a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between hearing and cognitive processes in adults with normal hearing. The project will include large-scale online experiments and targeted in-lab experiments. The online experiments will be powered to detect any modulating effects of individual WM differences on listening performance and will establish the conditions under which WM contributes to speech understanding and perceived effort. These conditions will then be inspected more closely in the lab using a physiological measure of listening effort, the task-evoked pupil response, a recognised marker of effort 'in the moment' (i.e., during listening). Both online and in-lab experiments will use our newly developed "split-listening" paradigm. In this paradigm, participants have to track two simultaneous voices. The relative spatial location of the two voices is manipulated in four incremental steps, from collocated, i.e., straight ahead of the listener (diotic), to fully lateralised (dichotic). The spatial manipulation provides a powerful way of pitting EM against attention-driven (i.e., cognitive) demands, with high EM and low attention demands in diotic listening vs low EM and high attention demands in dichotic listening. Pilot data from our lab have confirmed the ability of this paradigm to quantify the competing dynamics between energetic and cognitive processes. The pilot data have also shown that this paradigm is amenable to online testing on a large scale. Its parametric manipulation of EM and attention demands makes it an ideal candidate for pupillometric assessment. As a whole, the project offers a programmatic approach to the cognitive and physiological building blocks of effortful listening. The data on individual differences gathered in the online experiments will be valuable in elucidating the cognitive contributors to healthy hearing beyond the traditional hearing test and, in doing so, pave the way for targeted interventions in clinical populations (e.g., individuals with a hearing loss and/or dementia).

“认知聆听”是指记忆和注意力过程如何在有挑战性的条件下（例如噪声，分心）促进语音感知。对于年龄较大和/或听力障碍的听众，广泛确认了成功的认知能力成功的良好认知能力的说法。在这些组中，高工作记忆（WM）容量与语音中的任务中的表现更好。但是，对于有正常听力的年轻人，认知和聆听能力之间的联系尚不清楚。这样做的原因有四个：（1）年轻的，正常的听力成年人可能无法在认知措施上产生足够的个人变异性来检测与听力表现的可靠关联。因此，大多数实验的动力不足。因此，认知听力研究需要使用较大的样本进行。（2）大多数研究都集中在涉及能量掩蔽（EM）的不利条件上，即信号降解的条件（例如，背景噪声）。证据表明，认知对本质上“数据限制”的任务几乎没有帮助。因此，当挑战是由非EM来源引起的。（3）语义上下文可以减轻不良听力条件的影响，从而使认知支持多余或难以检测到认知。因此，在对认知听力进行建模时应考虑语义上下文。（4）听力表现（例如，正确识别的句子中的单词数）可能不是认知功能如何支持聆听的最敏感的衡量标准，因为给定的表现可以隐藏在单个认知工作中的有意义的差异。因此，在对认知聆听进行建模时，应包括一项心理努力的度量。该项目的目的是系统地应对上述挑战，并对听力正常的成年人的听力与认知过程之间的相互作用进行全面的了解。该项目将包括大规模的在线实验和目标内实验实验。在线实验将有动力检测单个WM差异对听力表现的任何调节作用，并将确定WM有助于语音理解和感知工作的条件。然后，将在实验室中更仔细地检查这些条件，并使用聆听努力的生理度量，任务引起的学生响应，即“暂时”的公认努力标记（即在听力期间）。在线和LAB实验都将使用我们新开发的“分裂上市”范式。在此范式中，参与者必须跟踪两个同时的声音。两种声音的相对空间位置以四个增量步骤操纵，即从共处，即直接在听众（Diotic）到完全侧向的（Dichotic）之前。该空间操作提供了一种强大的方法，可以使EM抵制注意力驱动的（即认知）需求，而EM的较高和diotiotic聆听的注意力较低，而注意力低下的EM和少量注意力的需求在DiChotic Leans中的需求很高。来自我们实验室的飞行员数据证实了这种范式量化能量和认知过程之间竞争动态的能力。试点数据还表明，此范式可以大规模在线测试。它对EM和注意力需求的参数操作使其成为瞳孔评估的理想候选者。总体而言，该项目为认知和生理良好的聆听提供了一种程序化方法。在线实验中收集的个体差异的数据对于阐明传统听力测试以外的健康听力的认知贡献者将是有价值的，并为此铺平了临床人群的有针对性干预措施的道路（例如，听力损失和/或痴呆症）。