Predicting language under difficult conditions: Effects of cognitive load, noise, and hearing impairment

在困难条件下预测语言：认知负荷、噪音和听力障碍的影响

• 批准号: ES/X001148/1
• 负责人: Martin Pickering
• 金额: $ 87.93万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 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%2FX001148%2F1
• 关键词: Predicting; language; under; difficult; conditions

Understanding speech is extraordinarily complex, yet people can generally understand what somebody has said as soon as they hear it. They manage to do so, in part, because they predict what the speaker is going to say next. For example, if a speaker says "I would like to go outside to fly a...", then the listener may predict that the speaker's next word will likely be "kite". Listeners use these predictions to "get ahead of the game", making comprehension more rapid and efficient. But we do not know what happens when listeners are unable to make these predictions (because their efforts are elsewhere), such as when they have to concentrate hard to hear the utterance, when they are paying attention to another task, or when they have a hearing impairment. In fact, given that people with hearing impairment already receive degraded auditory information and have to apply extra effort to understand what is being said, they could particularly benefit from predictions to "stay on the front foot". In this project, we investigate the factors that disrupt prediction when listening to speech to better understand the how prediction works in listeners with and without hearing impairment. By identifying the types of difficulty that impair prediction, we can start to identify methods to help resolve these difficulties and improve speech understanding, both for people with normal hearing in challenging listening situations, and for older adults with hearing impairment. We use a well-established technique known as the visual-world paradigm, in which participants listen to sentences and view objects on a screen while their eye movements are recorded. In previous studies, people heard (for example) the sentence "I would like to wear..." while seeing pictures of a tie, a dress, a drill, and a hairdryer. They tended to look at pictures of wearable objects (i.e., the tie or dress) before the speaker actually named the object, and they did so very quickly. We call this associative prediction, because it is dependent on simple associations with the word "wear". However, our work has shown that people also take their knowledge of the speaker into account when predicting. For example, they tended to look at the picture of a tie (a stereotypically masculine object) when they heard a male speaker say "I would like to wear...", but the picture of a dress (a stereotypically feminine object) when it was said by a female speaker. We call this strategic prediction, because it requires the listener to additionally take the perspective of the speaker. These strategic predictions are particularly valuable because they more accurately estimate what the speaker is likely to say, but they are slow and effortful.Our goal is to investigate the factors that hinder both simple associative predictions, and more complex strategic predictions. In a series of experiments, participants perform the visual-world paradigm under conditions of hearing difficulty (by listening to sentences in background noise) and increased task difficulty (by completing a second task while listening). Some of our experiments use young participants with normal hearing (conducted at the University of Edinburgh). Other experiments use older participants with and without hearing impairment (conducted at Hearing Sciences - Scottish Section, part of the University of Nottingham located in Glasgow). The studies address the following questions: (1) How do adverse listening conditions and increased task difficulty affect the two types of prediction?; (2) Does difficulty affect people with and without hearing impairment in the same or different ways?; and (3) Are the effects of hearing loss comparable to perceptual difficulty, cognitive difficulty, or a combination of both?Answering these questions will allow us to identify methods for overcoming such difficulties to improve speech understanding, particularly for people who struggle because of hearing loss.

理解语音非常复杂，但人们通常一听到某人所说的内容就可以理解。他们之所以能做到这一点，部分原因是他们能预测演讲者接下来要说什么。例如，如果说话者说“我想出去飞……”，那么听者可能会预测说话者的下一个单词可能是“风筝”。听众利用这些预测来“领先”，使理解更加快速和高效。但我们不知道当听众无法做出这些预测时（因为他们的努力在其他地方）会发生什么，例如当他们必须集中注意力才能听到话语时，当他们正在注意另一项任务时，或者当他们有一个听力障碍。事实上，考虑到有听力障碍的人已经收到了退化的听觉信息，并且必须付出额外的努力来理解所说的内容，他们尤其可以从“保持领先”的预测中受益。在这个项目中，我们研究了听语音时影响预测的因素，以更好地了解预测在有听力障碍和没有听力障碍的听众中的工作原理。通过识别影响预测的困难类型，我们可以开始找到帮助解决这些困难并提高言语理解的方法，无论是对于在具有挑战性的听力情况下听力正常的人还是对于有听力障碍的老年人。我们使用一种被称为视觉世界范式的成熟技术，其中参与者听句子并在屏幕上查看物体，同时记录他们的眼球运动。在之前的研究中，人们在看到领带、裙子、钻头和吹风机的图片时听到（例如）“我想穿……”这句话。他们倾向于在演讲者实际命名该物体之前查看可穿戴物体（即领带或连衣裙）的图片，而且他们做得很快。我们称其为联想预测，因为它依赖于与“磨损”一词的简单关联。然而，我们的工作表明，人们在预测时也会考虑对说话者的了解。例如，当他们听到男性说话者说“我想穿……”时，他们倾向于看领带（典型的男性物体）的图片，但当他们听到裙子的图片（典型的女性物体）时，他们倾向于看裙子的图片（典型的女性物体）。这是一位女发言人说的。我们称之为战略预测，因为它要求听者另外站在说话者的角度来看。这些策略预测特别有价值，因为它们可以更准确地估计说话者可能会说的话，但速度缓慢且费力。我们的目标是调查阻碍简单联想预测和更复杂策略预测的因素。在一系列实验中，参与者在听力困难（通过在背景噪音中听句子）和增加任务难度（通过在听的同时完成第二个任务）的条件下执行视觉世界范式。我们的一些实验使用听力正常的年轻参与者（在爱丁堡大学进行）。其他实验使用有或没有听力障碍的老年参与者（在格拉斯哥诺丁汉大学听力科学苏格兰分部进行）。这些研究解决了以下问题：（1）不利的听力条件和增加的任务难度如何影响这两种类型的预测？ (2) 困难是否以相同或不同的方式影响有听力障碍的人和没有听力障碍的人？ (3) 听力损失的影响是否与知觉困难、认知困难或两者的组合相当？回答这些问题将使我们能够找到克服这些困难的方法，以提高言语理解能力，特别是对于因听力而挣扎的人损失。