What is it about?
We studied how background noise and memory load affect listening effort by tracking pupil size. When people must remember more digits, memory demands can override the usual pupil response to changes in speech intelligibility.
Featured Image
Photo by Ion Fet on Unsplash
Why is it important?
It shows that pupil size does not purely reflect listening effort from noise or intelligibility: memory demands can change or mask this effect. This is relevant for researchers and clinicians who use pupillometry to assess listening effort in hearing and cognitive tests.
Perspectives
This study supports suggestions from previous studies: the pupil response is highly sensitive, but not specific to listening effort alone. Memory demands can easily reshape what we see in the pupil signal, so we should always interpret pupillometry with this broader sensitivity in mind.
Adriana Zekveld
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Influence of Memory Load, Speech-to-Noise Ratio, and Stimulus Rehearsal on the Pupil Dilation Response: Implications for the Assessment of Listening Effort, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, April 2026, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2026_jslhr-25-00164.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
