Perceived listener effort as an outcome measure for disordered speech

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Auditory Perception
• Communication Sciences

Background:

• Perceived listening effort quantifies the cognitive resources required to comprehend speech.
• Understanding disordered speech necessitates reliable outcome measures.
• Electrolaryngeal speech presents unique challenges for listeners.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if perceived listening effort provides unique information about disordered speech.
• To examine the relationship between perceived listening effort, speech intelligibility, and speech acceptability.
• To assess the reliability and agreement of perceptual ratings for electrolaryngeal speech.

Main Methods:

• Ten male speakers produced electrolaryngeal speech.
• Twenty-five inexperienced listeners rated speech stimuli for perceived listening effort and acceptability.
• Strict reliability and agreement criteria were applied to listener data.

Main Results:

• Perceived listening effort showed moderate to strong negative correlations with intelligibility (r=-0.76) and acceptability (r=-0.80).
• Both intelligibility and acceptability uniquely contributed to perceived listening effort ratings.
• Only 17 out of 25 listeners met the stringent reliability and agreement criteria.

Conclusions:

• Perceived listening effort ratings may offer valuable insights into the communicative success of individuals with speech disorders.
• Significant variability exists among inexperienced listeners' perceptual ratings of electrolaryngeal speech.
• Future research should explore factors influencing perceived listening effort and auditory-perceptual judgments.