The Effects of Noise and Simulated Conductive Hearing Loss on Physiological Response Measures During Interactive Conversations

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to study the effects of backgnoise and hearing attenuation associated with earplugs on three physiologmeasures, assumed to be markers of effort investment and arousal, dinteractive communication. Method: Twelve pairs of older people (average age of 63.2 years) with adjusted normal hearing took part in a face-to-face communication to solDiapix task. Communication was held in different levels of babble noise (0and 70 dBA) and with two levels of hearing attenuation (0 and 25 dB) in The physiological measures obtained included pupil size, heart rate variaband skin conductance. In addition, subjective ratings of perceived communtion success, frustration, and effort were obtained. Results: Ratings of perceived success, frustration, and effort confirmed communication was more difficult in noise and with approximately 25-dB hing attenuation and suggested that the implemented levels of noise and heattenuation resulted in comparable communication difficulties. Backgrounoise at 70 dBA and hearing attenuation both led to an initial increase in size (associated with effort), but only the effect of the background noise sustained throughout the conversation. The 25-dB hearing attenuation led significant decrease of the high-frequency power of heart rate variability asignificant increase of skin conductance level, measured as the average z of the electrodermal activity amplitude. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that several physiological measuappear to be viable indicators of changing communication conditions, pupillometry and cardiovascular as well as electrodermal measures potentbeing markers of communication difficulty.