Signal degradation delays semantic integration and raises listening effort

Evidence

The results show that in natural speech, listeners’ gazes reflect their uptake of acoustic information, and integration of preceding semantic context. Degradation of the signal leads to a later disambiguation of phonologically similar words, and to a delay in integration of semantic information. Complementary to this, the pupil dilation data show that early semantic integration reduces the effort in disambiguating phonologically similar words. Processing degraded speech comes with increased effort due to the impoverished nature of the signal. Delayed integration of semantic information further constrains listeners’ ability to compensate for inaudible signals. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3951

The results show that in natural speech, listeners’ gazes reflect their uptake of acoustic information, and integration of preceding semantic context. Degradation of the signal leads to a later disambiguation of phonologically similar words, and to a delay in integration of semantic information. Complementary to this, the pupil dilation data show that early semantic integration reduces the effort in disambiguating phonologically similar words. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3951

Categorization

• XREF: Links to auditory effort / listening load research and the broader effortful-listening framework in cognitive hearing science. — connects to: Degraded speech delays semantic integration and blocks contextual relief of effort — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3953; Semantic knowledge helps listeners interpret degraded speech signals; Speech models built on optimal listening neglect constant signal degradation (+6 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing later: what exact time course (in ms) separates natural from degraded speech in gaze data, and does pupillometry correlate with neural measures of listening effort?
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3951

Broader Connections

• Degraded speech delays semantic integration and blocks contextual relief of effort #corroborates (0.95) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3953
• Noise-vocoding degrades speech by replacing detail with band-limited noise envelopes. #expands (0.85)
• Semantic knowledge helps listeners interpret degraded speech signals #qualifies (0.80)
• Semantic-context benefits to word recognition vanish under signal degradation #contradicts (0.80)
• Degraded speech processing raises baseline cognitive effort independently of semantic context #expands (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3978
• Linguistic context lets listeners understand speech at lower acoustic intelligibility #qualifies (0.80)
• Speech models built on optimal listening neglect constant signal degradation #complicates (0.75)
• Auditory-model difference measures predict audible quality degradation #exemplifies (0.75)
• Echo delay magnitude in telecommunication maps to distinct perceptual degradations. #qualifies (0.70)