A Data‐Limit Account of Release From Masking During Speech‐on‐Speech Listening

Bibliographic Data

ID7150252
AuthorsSarah Knight (0000-0002-5013-9364, School of Psychology Newcastle University, corresponding author), Yue Zheng (0009-0002-6459-8120, Department of Psychology University of York), Georgie Maher (Department of Psychology University of York), Ronan McGarrigle (0000-0003-1704-1135, School of Psychology University of Leeds), Sven Matty, Sven L Mattys (0000-0001-6542-585X), Sven Mattys (Department of Psychology University of York)
Year2026
Volume50
Issue1
Pagese70166-e70166
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCognitive Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0364-0213 • E-ISSN: 1551-6709
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/cogs.70166
PMID41553830
OpenAlexW7124834517
LanguageEN
References cited59

Speech‐on‐speech listening involves selectively attending to a target talker while ignoring a simultaneous competing talker. Spatially separating the talkers improves performance, a phenomenon known as spatial release from masking (spatial RM). The same is true of spectral separation, that is, filtering the talkers into non‐overlapping frequency bands (spectral RM). The relative benefit of spatial versus spectral RM is currently unknown. Furthermore, it is unclear how listeners’ ability to exploit spatial versus spectral cues is related to individual differences in cognition. The resource‐limit account suggests that cognitive resources are required to support the processing of degraded speech, implying the strongest cognition/performance relationship when RM is limited or absent. However, an alternative claim, referred to as the data‐limit account, suggests that cognitive resources cease to be useful when the target is severely degraded. In this study, participants ( N = 240) completed a selective listening task in which they transcribed the speech of one of two simultaneously presented talkers. The speech was filtered into interleaved or overlapping frequency bands (spectral RM vs. no spectral RM) and presented dichotically or collocated (a proxy for spatial RM vs. no spatial RM). A battery of cognitive tasks was administered to assess working memory/attention. Spectral RM provided at least as much benefit as spatial RM, with the best performance when both RM types were present. Cognitive scores were significantly positively correlated with RM benefits. However, the weakest correlation between cognitive scores and performance was observed in the no‐RM condition. The results therefore support an account of speech‐on‐speech listening that lies on a continuum from data‐limited to resource‐limited processing as a function of the quality of the target speech signal

Active listening · Cognition · Cognitive resource theory · Correlation · Elementary cognitive task · Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Stuttering Research and Treatment

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access