A decrease in physiological arousal accompanied by stable behavioral performance reflects task habituation

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Audiology

Background:

• The Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL) emphasizes arousal's role in engaging with difficult listening tasks.
• Physiological and behavioral responses are often used to gauge task engagement.
• Understanding arousal changes during auditory tasks is crucial for explaining listening effort.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how physiological arousal, measured by pupil baseline, changes during an auditory recall test.
• To determine if working memory (WM) capacity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) influence these arousal changes.
• To investigate the relationship between arousal, task demands, and sustained engagement.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-one adults with hearing loss completed the Sentence-final Word Identification and Recall (SWIR) test with background noise.
• Pupil baseline was continuously monitored during the SWIR test.
• Working memory capacity was assessed using the Reading Span (RS) test.

Main Results:

• Pupil baseline decreased over the test, while recall performance remained consistent, suggesting task habituation.
• Neither WM capacity nor SNR level affected the change in pupil baseline over time.
• A significant interaction showed higher WM capacity correlated with a larger overall pupil baseline at low SNRs.

Conclusions:

• Auditory task engagement may be maintained despite declining arousal due to habituation.
• Higher working memory capacity may support better performance in challenging listening environments, reflected in higher arousal.
• These findings contribute to understanding the complex interplay of arousal, cognitive load, and listening effort in hearing aid users.