title: Visual cues and listening effort: individual variability.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of visual cues on listening effort as well as whether predictive variables such as working memory capacity (WMC) and lipreading ability affect the magnitude of listening effort.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty participants with normal hearing were tested using a paired-associates recall task in 2 conditions (quiet and noise) and 2 presentation modalities (audio only [AO] and auditory-visual [AV]). Signal-to-noise ratios were adjusted to provide matched speech recognition across audio-only and AV noise conditions. Also measured were subjective perceptions of listening effort and 2 predictive variables: (a) lipreading ability and (b) WMC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Objective and subjective results indicated that listening effort increased in the presence of noise, but on average the addition of visual cues did not significantly affect the magnitude of listening effort. Although there was substantial individual variability, on average participants who were better lipreaders or had larger WMCs demonstrated reduced listening effort in noise in AV conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the results support the hypothesis that integrating auditory and visual cues requires cognitive resources in some participants. The data indicate that low lipreading ability or low WMC is associated with relatively effortful integration of auditory and visual information in noise.
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Erin M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Picou
authors.forename: Todd A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Ricketts
authors.forename: Benjamin W Y
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Hornsby
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012016:Reference Values; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult