Impact of background noise and dysphonia on elementary students' listening comprehension and listening effort

This project investigated how background noise and dysphonic voice impact elementary students' listening comprehension and effort. Listening comprehension is essential for academic success, and this study explored the extent to which adverse conditions hinder sentence comprehension and the mental resources utilized. The experiment used speech material recorded by an actress with normal and dysphonic voice quality. Nineteen 8–12 year-old children participated, using a computer in a laboratory with a talkbox for stimuli and loudspeakers for classroom noise at two signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of + 6 dB and 0 dB. Listening effort was measured subjectively on a 5-point scale and objectively through response time, the seconds taken to select a figure onscreen. Executive functions like working memory, attention, and inhibitory control were also assessed. Results showed that lower SNR and dysphonia significantly affected comprehension accuracy and increased perceived listening effort. Inhibitory control correlated with increased perceived effort. Similarly, both factors significantly lengthened response times. However, no significant correlations with executive functions were observed for comprehension or response time. In conclusion, background noise and dysphonia significantly affect listening comprehension and effort among elementary students. These findings emphasize the need for educators and policymakers to mitigate these factors for optimal classroom learning conditions.