Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise.
Listening to conversations and remembering their content is a highly demanding task, especially in noisy environments. Previous research has mainly focused on short-term memory using simple cognitive tasks with unrelated words or digits. The present study investigates the listeners' short-term...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318821 |
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| author | Chinthusa Mohanathasan Cosima A Ermert Janina Fels Torsten W Kuhlen Sabine J Schlittmeier |
| author_facet | Chinthusa Mohanathasan Cosima A Ermert Janina Fels Torsten W Kuhlen Sabine J Schlittmeier |
| author_sort | Chinthusa Mohanathasan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Listening to conversations and remembering their content is a highly demanding task, especially in noisy environments. Previous research has mainly focused on short-term memory using simple cognitive tasks with unrelated words or digits. The present study investigates the listeners' short-term memory and listening effort in conversations under different listening conditions, with and without soft or moderate noise. To this end, participants were administered a dual-task paradigm, including a primary listening task, in which conversations between two talkers were presented, and an unrelated secondary task. In Experiment 1, this secondary task was a visual number-judgment task, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3, it was a vibrotactile pattern recognition task. All experiments were conducted in a quiet environment or under continuous broadband noise. For the latter, the signal-to-noise ratio in Experiments 1 and 2 was +10 dB (soft-noise condition), while in Experiment 3 it was -3 dB (moderate-noise condition). In Experiments 1 and 2, short-term memory of running speech and listening effort were unaffected by soft-noise listening conditions. In Experiment 3, however, the moderate-noise listening condition impaired performance in the primary listening task, while performance in the vibrotactile secondary task was unaffected. This pattern of results could suggest that the moderate-noise listening condition, with a signal-to-noise ratio of -3 dB, required increased listening effort compared to the soft-noise and quiet listening conditions. These findings indicate that listening situations with moderate noise can reduce short-term memory of heard conversational content and increase listening effort, even when the speech signals remain highly intelligible. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7927901ded74498f8d8c6fc70639d469 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-7927901ded74498f8d8c6fc70639d4692025-02-12T05:30:52ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01202e031882110.1371/journal.pone.0318821Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise.Chinthusa MohanathasanCosima A ErmertJanina FelsTorsten W KuhlenSabine J SchlittmeierListening to conversations and remembering their content is a highly demanding task, especially in noisy environments. Previous research has mainly focused on short-term memory using simple cognitive tasks with unrelated words or digits. The present study investigates the listeners' short-term memory and listening effort in conversations under different listening conditions, with and without soft or moderate noise. To this end, participants were administered a dual-task paradigm, including a primary listening task, in which conversations between two talkers were presented, and an unrelated secondary task. In Experiment 1, this secondary task was a visual number-judgment task, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3, it was a vibrotactile pattern recognition task. All experiments were conducted in a quiet environment or under continuous broadband noise. For the latter, the signal-to-noise ratio in Experiments 1 and 2 was +10 dB (soft-noise condition), while in Experiment 3 it was -3 dB (moderate-noise condition). In Experiments 1 and 2, short-term memory of running speech and listening effort were unaffected by soft-noise listening conditions. In Experiment 3, however, the moderate-noise listening condition impaired performance in the primary listening task, while performance in the vibrotactile secondary task was unaffected. This pattern of results could suggest that the moderate-noise listening condition, with a signal-to-noise ratio of -3 dB, required increased listening effort compared to the soft-noise and quiet listening conditions. These findings indicate that listening situations with moderate noise can reduce short-term memory of heard conversational content and increase listening effort, even when the speech signals remain highly intelligible.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318821 |
| spellingShingle | Chinthusa Mohanathasan Cosima A Ermert Janina Fels Torsten W Kuhlen Sabine J Schlittmeier Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise. PLoS ONE |
| title | Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise. |
| title_full | Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise. |
| title_fullStr | Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise. |
| title_short | Exploring short-term memory and listening effort in two-talker conversations: The influence of soft and moderate background noise. |
| title_sort | exploring short term memory and listening effort in two talker conversations the influence of soft and moderate background noise |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318821 |
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