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Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech

During the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have been raised about the impact of face masks on communication in classroom settings. However, it is unclear to what extent visual obstruction of the speaker’s mouth or changes to the acoustic signal lead to speech processing difficulties, and whether these...

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Autores principales: Schwarz, Julia, Li, Katrina Kechun, Sim, Jasper Hong, Zhang, Yixin, Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth, Post, Brechtje, Gibson, Jenny Louise, McDougall, Kirsty
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343587/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35928422
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.879156
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author Schwarz, Julia
Li, Katrina Kechun
Sim, Jasper Hong
Zhang, Yixin
Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth
Post, Brechtje
Gibson, Jenny Louise
McDougall, Kirsty
author_facet Schwarz, Julia
Li, Katrina Kechun
Sim, Jasper Hong
Zhang, Yixin
Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth
Post, Brechtje
Gibson, Jenny Louise
McDougall, Kirsty
author_sort Schwarz, Julia
collection PubMed
description During the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have been raised about the impact of face masks on communication in classroom settings. However, it is unclear to what extent visual obstruction of the speaker’s mouth or changes to the acoustic signal lead to speech processing difficulties, and whether these effects can be mitigated by semantic predictability, i.e., the availability of contextual information. The present study investigated the acoustic and visual effects of face masks on speech intelligibility and processing speed under varying semantic predictability. Twenty-six children (aged 8-12) and twenty-six adults performed an internet-based cued shadowing task, in which they had to repeat aloud the last word of sentences presented in audio-visual format. The results showed that children and adults made more mistakes and responded more slowly when listening to face mask speech compared to speech produced without a face mask. Adults were only significantly affected by face mask speech when both the acoustic and the visual signal were degraded. While acoustic mask effects were similar for children, removal of visual speech cues through the face mask affected children to a lesser degree. However, high semantic predictability reduced audio-visual mask effects, leading to full compensation of the acoustically degraded mask speech in the adult group. Even though children did not fully compensate for face mask speech with high semantic predictability, overall, they still profited from semantic cues in all conditions. Therefore, in classroom settings, strategies that increase contextual information such as building on students’ prior knowledge, using keywords, and providing visual aids, are likely to help overcome any adverse face mask effects.
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spelling pubmed-93435872022-08-03 Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech Schwarz, Julia Li, Katrina Kechun Sim, Jasper Hong Zhang, Yixin Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth Post, Brechtje Gibson, Jenny Louise McDougall, Kirsty Front Psychol Psychology During the COVID-19 pandemic, questions have been raised about the impact of face masks on communication in classroom settings. However, it is unclear to what extent visual obstruction of the speaker’s mouth or changes to the acoustic signal lead to speech processing difficulties, and whether these effects can be mitigated by semantic predictability, i.e., the availability of contextual information. The present study investigated the acoustic and visual effects of face masks on speech intelligibility and processing speed under varying semantic predictability. Twenty-six children (aged 8-12) and twenty-six adults performed an internet-based cued shadowing task, in which they had to repeat aloud the last word of sentences presented in audio-visual format. The results showed that children and adults made more mistakes and responded more slowly when listening to face mask speech compared to speech produced without a face mask. Adults were only significantly affected by face mask speech when both the acoustic and the visual signal were degraded. While acoustic mask effects were similar for children, removal of visual speech cues through the face mask affected children to a lesser degree. However, high semantic predictability reduced audio-visual mask effects, leading to full compensation of the acoustically degraded mask speech in the adult group. Even though children did not fully compensate for face mask speech with high semantic predictability, overall, they still profited from semantic cues in all conditions. Therefore, in classroom settings, strategies that increase contextual information such as building on students’ prior knowledge, using keywords, and providing visual aids, are likely to help overcome any adverse face mask effects. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9343587/ /pubmed/35928422 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.879156 Text en Copyright © 2022 Schwarz, Li, Sim, Zhang, Buchanan-Worster, Post, Gibson and McDougall. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Schwarz, Julia
Li, Katrina Kechun
Sim, Jasper Hong
Zhang, Yixin
Buchanan-Worster, Elizabeth
Post, Brechtje
Gibson, Jenny Louise
McDougall, Kirsty
Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech
title Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech
title_full Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech
title_fullStr Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech
title_full_unstemmed Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech
title_short Semantic Cues Modulate Children’s and Adults’ Processing of Audio-Visual Face Mask Speech
title_sort semantic cues modulate children’s and adults’ processing of audio-visual face mask speech
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343587/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35928422
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.879156
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