Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, Via Saragat 1, 44122, Ferrara, Italy.
Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research, Via A. Volta/A. Volta Straße 13/A, 39100, Bolzano-Bozen, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 31;13(1):14285. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-40660-1.
Comprehending the teacher's message when other students are chatting is challenging. Even though the sound environment is the same for a whole class, differences in individual performance can be observed, which might depend on a variety of personal factors and their specific interaction with the listening condition. This study was designed to explore the role of individual characteristics (reading comprehension, inhibitory control, noise sensitivity) when primary school children perform a listening comprehension task in the presence of a two-talker masker. The results indicated that this type of noise impairs children's accuracy, effort, and motivation during the task. Its specific impact depended on the level and was modulated by the child's characteristics. In particular, reading comprehension was found to support task accuracy, whereas inhibitory control moderated the effect of listening condition on the two measures of listening effort included in the study (response time and self-ratings), even though with a different pattern of association. A moderation effect of noise sensitivity on perceived listening effort was also observed. Understanding the relationship between individual characteristics and classroom sound environment has practical implications for the acoustic design of spaces promoting students' well-being, and supporting their learning performance.
理解老师在其他学生聊天时的信息是具有挑战性的。即使整个班级的声音环境相同，也可以观察到个体表现的差异，这可能取决于各种个人因素及其与听力条件的特定相互作用。本研究旨在探讨个体特征（阅读理解、抑制控制、噪声敏感性）在小学生在有双说话人掩蔽的情况下进行听力理解任务时的作用。结果表明，这种噪声会损害儿童在任务中的准确性、努力程度和动机。其具体影响取决于水平，并受到儿童特征的调节。特别是，阅读理解被发现支持任务的准确性，而抑制控制则调节了听力条件对研究中包含的两种听力努力测量指标（反应时间和自我评估）的影响，尽管关联模式不同。噪声敏感性对感知听力努力的调节作用也得到了观察。了解个体特征与课堂声音环境之间的关系对于促进学生幸福感和支持学习表现的空间声学设计具有实际意义。
