Speech Science Forum - Ingrid Johnsrude (Western University)

Abstract:

When speech is masked or degraded in some way, demands are placed on cognitive processes beyond those needed for comprehension of clear speech. Such recruitment is probably why listening in noise “feels” effortful, even when intelligibility is high. Increased effort is aversive and tiring, and the goal of making listening less effortful is increasingly recognized as important. In this talk, I will critically discuss what it might mean to “listen harder”, cognitively and neuropsychologically. I will describe how I think about listening effort, and how a reframing of the construct may enable research progress. I highlight this with some recent work from my lab demonstrating the use of rich, naturalistic speech materials to study listening behaviour.