Cognitive Load in Voice Therapy Carry-Over Exercises.

Area of Science:

• Speech-language pathology
• Cognitive psychology
• Voice science

Background:

• Online speech production in voice therapy requires patients to automate new vocal behaviors for daily communication.
• The cognitive load associated with different speech tasks can impact the effectiveness of therapy carry-over exercises.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how cognitive load varies across three distinct speech production tasks used in voice therapy.
• To determine the relationship between speech task characteristics and cognitive load during voice carry-over exercises.

Main Methods:

• Twelve subjects participated in three speech conditions: rote speech, set-form sentences, and semispontaneous speech.
• A secondary visual discrimination task measured response times to assess cognitive load.
• Subjective ratings via questionnaires were collected after each speech task.

Main Results:

• Response times on the visual task were shortest for rote speech, intermediate for semispontaneous speech, and longest for set-form sentences.
• Subjective ratings correlated with objective measures of cognitive load (response times).
• Acoustic measures, including fundamental frequency and vocal fold compression, differed across speech tasks.

Conclusions:

• The selection of speech tasks is crucial for effectively automating revised speech behaviors in voice therapy.
• Subjective self-reports appear to be a reliable indicator of cognitive load during speech production tasks.