Speech intelligibility and listening effort in university classrooms for native and non-native Italian listeners

Abstract

Listening effort describes the allocation of attentional and cognitive resources for successful listening. In adverse conditions, the mental demands for listening increase, interfering with other cognitive functions. This is especially relevant in learning spaces, where complex tasks that recruit more cognitive resources (e.g. memorization of information and comprehension) are performed by the students. This study focuses on the case of university classrooms and investigates the effects of different types of masking noise on both speech intelligibility and listening effort. Speech-in-noise tests in the Italian language were presented to 25 young adults with normal hearing (13 native and 12 non-native listeners) within an existing university classroom located in Bozen-Bolzano (Italy). The tests were presented in three listening conditions (quiet, stationary noise, and fluctuating noise), grouping the listeners around two locations within the classroom. The task performance was assessed using both speech intelligibility and two proxy measures of listening effort: response time and subjective ratings of effort. Longer response times and higher subjective ratings were taken to reflect increased listening effort. Results in noisy conditions were compared to the quiet condition. A disadvantage in task accuracy performance was found for non-native compared to native listeners; concerning response time, it was found that when the target signal is masked by a fluctuating noise, additional processing time is requested to non-native listeners compared to their native peers. The interaction was not pointed out by subjective ratings, supporting the hypothesis of a different sensitivity to listening conditions of the two proxy measures of listening effort.

Perceptual Characteristics of Chinese Speech Intelligibility in Noise Environment

“…Zeng et al investigated the influence of noise and reverberation on the Chinese speech intelligibility of elderly and young subjects [19]. Visentin et al investigated the effects of different types of noise on speech intelligibility in university classrooms [20]. Duquesnoy measured the speech perceptual threshold for sentences in quiet and noisy environment of elderly and young subjects with normal hearing [21].…”

How Reliable are 11- to 13-Year-Olds’ Self-Ratings of Effort in Noisy Conditions?

“…These findings give the impression that the relationship between different measures of effort might depend on the type of task (e.g., characteristics, difficulty), potentially reinforcing the claim that they tap into different underlying cognitive dimensions (Alhanbali et al, 2019). For instance, recent research indicates a dissociation between ratings of "ease" or "effort" and behavioral measures of effort, in both adults (Lemke and Besser, 2016;Visentin et al, 2019) and children (Picou et al, 2019;Oosthuizen et al, 2021b). Studies exploring this relationship in school-age children are scarce, however, and future studies need to address this research gap.…”

Premises for Effective Teaching and Learning: State of the Art, New Outcomes and Perspectives of Classroom Acoustics

“…Prodi et al investigated the listening efficiency and the listening effort. [21][22][23][24] The influence of classroom acoustics on students' performance was first investigated through the administration of standardized tests for the evaluation of children attainments in English, mathematics, and science,, 14 and then by the assessment of sentence comprehension, 25 math and language outcomes, 26 reading skills, 53 changes in attention level 27 and comprehension performance. 28 According to teachers' perspective, three billion people are the working population in the world and teachers are the 2% (Europe: 2.1%; USA: 2%), i.e., 60M.…”