The interplay between perceptual and cognitive factors during speech perception in challenging environments

Speaker: Jing Shen (Temple University)

Abstract: Real-life communication environments often contain multiple adverse conditions that are perceptually and cognitively challenging, such as background noise, acoustic degradation, and linguistic complexity. These conditions can create negative compound effects on speech perception in challenging environments, but their combined impact and the interactive mechanisms are poorly understood. This challenge is further aggravated by age-related hearing loss, resulting in older adults’ difficulty with speech communication in real-life environments, with a significant impact on their physical and psychological well-being. To provide effective audiological services for improving older adults’ speech perception in challenging environments, it is critical to understand how multiple perceptual and cognitive factors interact in influencing older adults’ speech perception outcomes. In this talk, I will present behavioral and pupillometry data from a series of experiments to reveal the complex interplay. I will also discuss the future directions in this line of work that can lead to development of clinical assessments and interventions with strong ecological validity.