Influence of Audio Playback Speed and Dysphonic Voice on University Students' Cognitive Performance

To verify whether speech rate and the presence of dysphonia impact the cognitive performance of university students.

The study included health sciences undergraduates aged 18 to 40 years, of any gender. Participants were randomly assigned to tests of attention, working memory, and language, recorded by women with rough dysphonic or healthy voices, and presented at different audio playback speeds (1.0×, 1.25×, 1.5×, and 2.0×). All tests were part of the Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (Neupsilin). Results were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare cognitive performance across playback speeds, and the Mann-Whitney test to compare performance according to vocal quality (healthy or dysphonic voice).

The rough dysphonic voice negatively affected the cognitive performance of university students in tasks involving attention, working memory with semantic cues (word span in sentences), and repetition of words and pseudowords. Dysphonic voice quality was favored in working memory tasks without semantic cues (ascending digit span). Playback speed interfered only with repetition tasks, with poorer performance observed above 1.75×.

Vocal quality negatively impacted students' cognitive performance, particularly in attention and working memory, regardless of audio playback speed.