Some factors underlying individual differences in speech recognition on PRESTO: a first report

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Speech Perception

Background:

• Individual variability in speech recognition under adverse listening conditions is well-documented.
• Core factors influencing these differences remain largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate sensory, perceptual, and neurocognitive differences between high and low performers on the Perceptually Robust English Sentence Test Open-set (PRESTO).
• Utilize a high-variability sentence recognition test in adverse conditions to identify listener distinctions.

Main Methods:

• Compared young, normal-hearing adults (N=40) categorized as high (HiPRESTO) or low (LoPRESTO) performers on the PRESTO test.
• Assessed real-world hearing difficulties, indexical processing (talker, gender, dialect discrimination), and neurocognitive abilities (memory, attention, vocabulary, executive function, IQ).

Main Results:

• HiPRESTO listeners showed superior gender and dialect discrimination, longer digit spans (short-term/working memory), and higher vocabulary (WordFam).
• LoPRESTO listeners reported more difficulty in public places; both groups were similar in overall self-reported difficulties, talker discrimination, attention (Stroop), and nonverbal IQ (WASI).

Conclusions:

• Significant differences exist between good and poor listeners in indexical processing, memory capacity, vocabulary, and executive functions.
• Variability in speech recognition in noise may stem from individual differences in encoding and maintaining detailed speech information.