Investigating the impact of selective directional auditory attention on eye movements, pupil responses, and auditory perception in the presence of competing speech

Date

2023-9-8

Author

Yağmur, Serap

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This PhD thesis investigates how selective directional auditory attention affects eye movements and pupil responses, demonstrating that concentrating on stimuli from a single-ear enhances attentiveness and task performance. The study investigates how multi-talker speech interference, age, gender, and audio direction impact eye movements and pupil dilation. In a listening test, 38 subjects listened to short words with and without interfering speech. Interference noticeably affects pupils, prompting gaze towards sound sources and larger pupils during competing speakers, revealing a crucial aspect of the study. Moreover, this research uncovers an unexplored link between Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ), Speech Intelligibility (SII), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) values for Turkish stimuli, and pupil dilation. Furthermore, this study examines whether presented stimuli involve familiar or unfamiliar words, probing emotional connotations effects on pupil dilation responses. The research establishes a link between speech quality and pupil dilation, indicating better performance with higher-quality auditory stimuli, regardless of lexical popularity or meaning. Ultimately, these findings underscore the utility of eye movement patterns and pupillometry as tools for capturing nuances in selective auditory attention. This holds profound implications for advancing hearing aid technology and improving communication abilities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder or hearing impairments.

Subject Keywords

Selective directional auditory attention, Pupillometry, Eye movement, Competing speech, Auditory perception

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/105516

Collections

Graduate School of Informatics, Thesis