A virtual speaker in noisy classroom conditions : supporting or disrupting children’s listening comprehension?
(2019) In Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology 44(2). p.79-86- Abstract
Aim: Seeing a speaker’s face facilitates speech recognition, particularly under noisy conditions. Evidence for how it might affect comprehension of the content of the speech is more sparse. We investigated how children’s listening comprehension is affected by multi-talker babble noise, with or without presentation of a digitally animated virtual speaker, and whether successful comprehension is related to performance on a test of executive functioning. Materials and Methods: We performed a mixed-design experiment with 55 (34 female) participants (8- to 9-year-olds), recruited from Swedish elementary schools. The children were presented with four different narratives, each in one of four conditions: audio-only presentation in a quiet... (More)
Aim: Seeing a speaker’s face facilitates speech recognition, particularly under noisy conditions. Evidence for how it might affect comprehension of the content of the speech is more sparse. We investigated how children’s listening comprehension is affected by multi-talker babble noise, with or without presentation of a digitally animated virtual speaker, and whether successful comprehension is related to performance on a test of executive functioning. Materials and Methods: We performed a mixed-design experiment with 55 (34 female) participants (8- to 9-year-olds), recruited from Swedish elementary schools. The children were presented with four different narratives, each in one of four conditions: audio-only presentation in a quiet setting, audio-only presentation in noisy setting, audio-visual presentation in a quiet setting, and audio-visual presentation in a noisy setting. After each narrative, the children answered questions on the content and rated their perceived listening effort. Finally, they performed a test of executive functioning. Results: We found significantly fewer correct answers to explicit content questions after listening in noise. This negative effect was only mitigated to a marginally significant degree by audio-visual presentation. Strong executive function only predicted more correct answers in quiet settings. Conclusions: Altogether, our results are inconclusive regarding how seeing a virtual speaker affects listening comprehension. We discuss how methodological adjustments, including modifications to our virtual speaker, can be used to discriminate between possible explanations to our results and contribute to understanding the listening conditions children face in a typical classroom.
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- author
- Nirme, Jens LU ; Haake, Magnus LU ; Lyberg Åhlander, Viveka LU ; Brännström, Jonas LU and Sahlén, Birgitta LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- classroom, comprehension, education, Listening, multimodality, noise, virtual humans
- in
- Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology
- volume
- 44
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 8 pages
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:29619859
- scopus:85045045696
- ISSN
- 1401-5439
- DOI
- 10.1080/14015439.2018.1455894
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 09dbd9a1-6c80-492d-9485-3af2d9517e1d
- date added to LUP
- 2018-04-18 15:42:52
- date last changed
- 2024-04-15 05:38:05
@article{09dbd9a1-6c80-492d-9485-3af2d9517e1d,
abstract = {{<p>Aim: Seeing a speaker’s face facilitates speech recognition, particularly under noisy conditions. Evidence for how it might affect comprehension of the content of the speech is more sparse. We investigated how children’s listening comprehension is affected by multi-talker babble noise, with or without presentation of a digitally animated virtual speaker, and whether successful comprehension is related to performance on a test of executive functioning. Materials and Methods: We performed a mixed-design experiment with 55 (34 female) participants (8- to 9-year-olds), recruited from Swedish elementary schools. The children were presented with four different narratives, each in one of four conditions: audio-only presentation in a quiet setting, audio-only presentation in noisy setting, audio-visual presentation in a quiet setting, and audio-visual presentation in a noisy setting. After each narrative, the children answered questions on the content and rated their perceived listening effort. Finally, they performed a test of executive functioning. Results: We found significantly fewer correct answers to explicit content questions after listening in noise. This negative effect was only mitigated to a marginally significant degree by audio-visual presentation. Strong executive function only predicted more correct answers in quiet settings. Conclusions: Altogether, our results are inconclusive regarding how seeing a virtual speaker affects listening comprehension. We discuss how methodological adjustments, including modifications to our virtual speaker, can be used to discriminate between possible explanations to our results and contribute to understanding the listening conditions children face in a typical classroom.</p>}},
author = {{Nirme, Jens and Haake, Magnus and Lyberg Åhlander, Viveka and Brännström, Jonas and Sahlén, Birgitta}},
issn = {{1401-5439}},
keywords = {{classroom; comprehension; education; Listening; multimodality; noise; virtual humans}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{79--86}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology}},
title = {{A virtual speaker in noisy classroom conditions : supporting or disrupting children’s listening comprehension?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14015439.2018.1455894}},
doi = {{10.1080/14015439.2018.1455894}},
volume = {{44}},
year = {{2019}},
}