Subjective Versus Objective Measures of Listening Effort in Multilingual Individuals

PURPOSE: Listening effort can be assessed using both subjective and objective measures. This study investigated the correlation between subjective and objective measures of listening effort among multilingual individuals and how these measures are influenced by listening conditions (quiet vs. noisy environments) and language (first [L1] vs. second [L2] languages). Additionally, it examined whether these measures are affected by participants' speech recognition performance. METHOD: Listening effort was evaluated among 92 normal-hearing multilingual young adults (45 Arabic-Hebrew listeners and 47 Hebrew-English listeners). Objective effort was measured by tracking changes in pupil size while participants listened to speech stimuli in both their L1 and L2 under quiet and noisy conditions, and subjective effort was assessed by having participants rate their effort on a scale from 0 (minimal effort) to 100 (extreme effort). RESULTS: The results showed that both measures indicated increased effort in noisy conditions compared to quiet ones and when listening to L2 compared to L1. However, no significant correlation was found between the two measures of listening effort. While subjective ratings were aligned with participants' speech recognition performance, peak pupil dilation did not show such an effect. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore that different measures of listening effort offer distinct insights, and results from one measure may not necessarily apply to others. Therefore, it is crucial to understand these distinctions and avoid relying on a single method when assessing multilingual listening effort to better capture their challenges and guide appropriate support.