Motivation, Cognition and Listening Effort 
Speaker: Professor Mary Rudner
Hard of hearing people often find that listening is effortful. This makes listening effort an important phenomenon to study. However, there has been a lack of consensus among the research community concerning both the definition of listening effort and how to measure it. The Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL, Pichora Fuller et al., 2016) brings together tools and concepts to form a basis for future work on understanding listening effort. It also provides a scientific definition of listening effort: the deliberate allocation of mental resources to overcome obstacles in goal pursuit when carrying out a listening task. Fundamental to the FUEL is Kahneman’s (1973) model of attention and effort, which describes how available cognitive resources are allocated to on-going tasks. This allocation process can also be understood in terms of working memory. The decision to allocate cognitive resources to a listening task often depends on motivation and the pleasure of hearing significant sounds.
In this CAA webinar, I will describe the FUEL and how it can be used as a tool for understanding effortful listening. I will also provide examples of the way in which the FUEL is driving current research.
Learning points:
1. The role of cognition in listening
2. Understanding the Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL)
3. Methods of measuring listening effort
Speaker: Mary Rudner, Professor in Disability Research, Linnaeus Centre HEAD, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden.
Mary Rudner is Professor of Disability Research specializing in Cognitive Hearing Science at Linköping University, Sweden and guest professor at Lund University, Sweden. At Linköping University, she is Deputy Research Manager at the Linnaeus Centre HEAD, for research on HEaring And Deafness, and Director of Studies of the HEAD Graduate School. Her research interest is in the role of cognition in language and memory. Her work is funded by Swedish Research Council, Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences, Swedish Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare and she has received career awards from Linköping University. She collaborates nationally and internationally. Recent work has focused on cognitive representation and cross-modal plasticity associated with deafness.
References
- Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and Effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
- Pichora-Fuller, M.K., Kramer, S.E., Eckert, M.A., Edwards, B.B., Hornsby, B.W.Y., Humes, L.E., Lemke, U., Lunner, T., Matthen, M., Mackersie, C.L., Naylor, G., Phillips, N., Richter, M., Rudner, M., Sommers, M.S., Tremblay, K.L. & Wingfield A. (2016). Hearing Impairment and Cognitive Energy: The Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL). Ear and Hearing, 37, 5S-27
