Listening effort in children and adults in classroom noise

Abstract

It is well known that hearing in noisy situations is more challenging than in quiet environments. This holds true for adults and especially for children. This study employed a child-appropriate dual-task paradigm to investigate listening effort in children aged six to ten years and young adults. The primary task involved word recognition, while the secondary task evaluated digit recall. Additionally, subjective perception of listening effort was assessed using a child-appropriate questionnaire. This study incorporated plausible sound reproduction and examined classroom scenarios including multi-talker babble noise with two signal-to-noise ratios (0 dB and −3 dB) in an anechoic and an acoustically simulated classroom environment. Forty-four primary school children aged six to ten (17 first- to second-graders and 18 third- to fourth-graders) and 25 young adults participated in this study. The results revealed differences in listening effort between the noise conditions in third- to fourth-graders and supported using the dual-task paradigm for that age group. For all three age groups, a greater subjective perception of listening effort in noise was found. Furthermore, a correlation between the subjective perception of listening effort and behavioural listening effort based on the experimental results was found for third- to fourth-graders and adults.