Effects of auditory training on low-pass filtered speech perception and listening-related cognitive load.

Studies supporting learning-induced reductions in listening-related cognitive load have lacked procedural learning controls, making it difficult to determine the extent to which effects arise from perceptual or procedural learning. Here, listeners were trained in the coordinate response measure (CRM) task under unfiltered (UT) or degraded low-pass filtered (FT) conditions. Improvements in low-pass filtered CRM performance were larger for FT. Both conditions showed training-related reductions in cognitive load as indexed by a secondary working memory task. However, only the FT condition showed a correlation between CRM improvement and secondary task performance, suggesting that effects can be driven by perceptual and procedural learning.