Validation of a simple response-time measure of listening effort

Abstract

This study compares two response-time measures of listening effort that can be combined with a clinical speech test for a more comprehensive evaluation of total listening experience; verbal response times to auditory stimuli (RTaud) and response times to a visual task (RTsvis) in a dual-task paradigm. The listening task was presented in five masker conditions; no noise, and two types of noise at two fixed intelligibility levels. Both the RTsaud and RTsvis showed effects of noise. However, only RTsaud showed an effect of intelligibility. Because of its simplicity in implementation, RTsaud may be a useful effort measure for clinical applications.