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Updated: Feb 1, 2026

Making Sense of Listening: The IMAP Test Battery
Published on: October 11, 2010
Low background noise increases cognitive load in older adults listening to competing speech
Hartmut Meister1, Sebastian Rählmann1, Martin Walger2
1Jean-Uhrmacher-Institute for Clinical ENT-Research, University of Cologne, Geibelstrasse 29-31, D-50931 Cologne, Germany hartmut.meister@uni-koeln.de, sebastian.raehlmann@audibene.de.
Abstract:
This letter describes a dual-task paradigm sensitive to noise masking at favorable signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Two competing sentences differing in voice and context cues were presented against noise at SNRs of +2 and +6 dB. Listeners were asked to repeat back words from both competing sentences while prioritizing one of them. Recognition of the high-priority sentences was high and did not depend on the SNR. In contrast, recognition of the low-priority sentences was low and showed a significant SNR effect that was related to the listener's working memory capacity. This suggests that even subtle noise masking causes cognitive load in competing-talker situations.
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