The Effects of Age and Background Noise on Intelligibility and Perceived Listening Effort for Tracheoesophageal Speakers

Abstract

The current study evaluated the effect of background noise and/or a communication partner's age on speech intelligibility and perceived listening effort for individuals who use tracheoesophageal (TEP) speech. Nine adult male TEP speakers provided speech samples from an intelligibility test. One set of speech samples were recorded in quiet, and another set was mixed with multitalker babble. Twelve younger listeners and 12 older listeners with typical hearing transcribed sentences from the TEP speakers in quiet and noise and rated perceived listening effort using 100-mm visual analog scales. Results revealed that regardless of the age of listener, TEP speakers were significantly less intelligible in noise and that listeners required more listening effort to understand these speakers in noise. Results also revealed that when both hearing status and working memory were controlled, the age of the communication partner did not significantly impact speech intelligibility or perceived listening effort. These results add to the growing literature that people with communication disorders are penalized more than typical speakers when communicating in background noise, even if they show comparable metrics in quiet settings. These results need to be considered when developing strategies for assessing TEP speakers and monitoring treatment success. While the results of this study did not show a statistically significant difference in intelligibility ratings and perceived listening effort based on the age of listener, it is also important to consider factors related to the communication partner/listener when providing therapy and counseling for TEP speakers and their families.