The Effect of Simultaneous Text on Performance on a Modified Speech-in-Noise Task
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Monash University, Physiology, Australia
Background: In daily life we often process text and speech simultaneously (e.g., reading an email on a mobile device as you listen to someone talk). Given that text and speech use similar brain networks, it is likely that there are significant costs in the ability to accurately process both streams of information. We studied how the simultaneous presentation of text affects the ability to recall spoken sentences in a modified speech-in-noise task.
Methods: Two groups of native English speakers were tested for recall of linguistically-simple 3-6 word meaningful sentences. The Audio-Visual (AV) group was presented the sentences as text on a PC screen and simultaneously as synthetic speech (at 70dB) through headphones. These audio-visual sentence pairs could be congruent (matched content) or incongruent (different content; same number of words), but subjects were not informed as to the pairing to expect. After each sentence pair (A-V trials), a picture (headphones or PC monitor) prompted the subject to recall either the speech or the text. An Audio group was tested with sentences presented only as speech (A-only trials). In both groups the audio content was degraded by presenting the speech with a background of 8-speaker babble noise, at each of five different levels of babble noise (no noise, 64dB, 68dB, 71dB and 73dB), with 30 different trials (A-V sentence pairs or A-only sentences) at each noise level.
Results: For congruent trials, the AV group recalled speech correctly at all noise levels, although subjects had no prior knowledge about what speech-text pairing to expect. For the incongruent trials, there was no difference between groups in the no noise condition; however at the higher noise levels, the Audio-only group outperformed the AV group. The AV group’s errors were not caused by simple confusions of text for speech. Thus, the rescue of speech by matching text (in the congruent pairing condition) was not simply because subjects replaced text for speech in high background noise conditions.
Discussion: When speech is degraded by background babble noise, incongruent text interferes with the recall of speech, whereas congruent text rescues recall. The rescue of speech by matching text may have been the result of sufficient cues remaining in the masked auditory stream for congruency to be identified, or because the text may have boosted the mental representation of speech at a phonological or a semantic level.
Keywords:
multimodal integration,
language processing,
Speech,
Speech in noise,
dual processing
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Language
Citation:
Grossman
I and
Rajan
R
(2013). The Effect of Simultaneous Text on Performance on a Modified Speech-in-Noise Task.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00108
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Received:
16 Sep 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
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Correspondence:
Ms. Irina Grossman, Monash University, Physiology, Monash, Victoria, VIC 3800, Australia, irina.grossman@monash.edu