Working memory and spatial processing capabilities

Speech understanding in complex listening environments draws heavily on working memory capabilities and is directly impacted by age-related cognitive deficits. In a normally functioning auditory system, when the target and maskers are spatially separated, binaural benefits can be significant and the subsequent improvement in the intelligibility of the target signal can be measured as a spatial release from masking. Here, we investigate the relationship between working memory and implied cognitive load on speech understanding. Working memory capacity was measured using an abbreviated reading span task. Implied cognitive load was varied using a new temporal overlap threshold estimation method (O’Neill et al., 2023) that used a divided attention version of the classic spatial release from the masking task. Initial analyses of the data revealed that the identification of the first target call sign was higher compared to the identification of the third call sign even though the third call sign was presented the last and was unmasked by other speech stimuli. This trend was true for both colocated and separated listening conditions. Additionally, the interplay between age, hearing loss, and reading span measures in relation to speech identification will be discussed.