Effortful listening under the microscope: Examining relations between pupillometric and subjective markers of effort and tiredness from listening. (8th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McGarrigle, Ronan; Rakusen, Lyndon; Mattys, Sven
• Is Part Of: Psychophysiology. Volume 58:Number 1(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-10-08
• Subjects: Fatigue -- Listening efforListening effort -- Pupillometry -- Rmcorr -- Speech perception; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13703
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-5772

Abstract

Abstract: Effort during listening is commonly measured using the task‐evoked pupil response (TEPR); a pupillometric marker of physiological arousal. However, studies to date report no association between TEPR and perceived effort. One possible reason for this is the way in which self‐report effort measures are typically administered, namely as a single data point collected at the end of a testing session. Another possible reason is that TEPR might relate more closely to the experience of tiredness from listening than to effort per se. To examine these possibilities, we conducted two preregistered experiments that recorded subjective ratings of effort and tiredness from listening at multiple time points and examined their covariance with TEPR over the course of listening tasks varying in levels of acoustic and attentional demand. In both experiments, we showed a within‐subject association between TEPR and tiredness from listening, but no association between TEPR and effort. The data also suggest that the effect of task difficulty on the experience of tiredness from listening may go undetected using the traditional approach of collecting a single data point at the end of a listening block. Finally, this study demonstrates the utility of a novel correlation analysis technique ("rmcorr"), which can be used to overcome statistical power constraints commonly found in the literature. Teasing apart the subjective and physiological mechanisms that underpin effortful listening is a crucial step toward addressing these difficulties in older and/or hearing‐impaired individuals. Abstract : Substantial confusion exists in the literature regarding the relationship between measures of effortful listening. This is the first study to systematically examine the relationship between changes in a commonly used physiological measure of effort (TEPR) and concomitant changes in subjective effort and tiredness from listening using a novel analysis technique ("rmcorr"). Across two experiments, we demonstrate that changes in TEPR are negatively associated with changes in perceived tiredness from listening, but not effort.