Seminars in Hearing Research at Purdue (SHRP)

Date: Thursday, November 18, 2021

Time: 10:30 – 11:20 am

Location: LYLE 1150

Speaker: Alexander Francis, Associate Professor, SLHS

Title:  Individual differences in personality traits affect performance, frustration, and effort in a speech-in-noise task

Authors: Paola Medina Lopez, Timothy Stump, Nicole Kirk, Vincent Jung, Jane E. Clougherty, Alexander L. Francis

Abstract:
Individual personality traits may influence psychological and physiological response to background noise. Here, we assessed participants’ (N = 80) performance on a speech-in-noise arithmetic task along with self-rated effort and frustration and several emotion/personality-related questionnaires including the NoiseQ assessment of sensitivity to noise and the Rotters locus of control scale. Locus of control reflects the degree to which individuals feel they control the experiences in their life. Those with a more internalized locus of control attribute their experiences to their own choices and actions, while those with a more external locus of control tend to attribute successes and failures to external factors beyond their control. In the experiment, we manipulated the feeling of control that participants had over noise level by allowing half to choose task difficulty ("easy" or "hard") while assigning the others to a difficulty level without agency. On each trial, participants heard three spoken digits and added them. In half of the trials, one digit was masked by noise. To better assess the impact of choice and perceived difficulty, signal-to-noise ratio and spoken digits were identical across all conditions. Results suggest an important role for both sensitivity to noise and locus of control. For example, individuals with greater sensitivity to noise expressed greater frustration with the task, and assessed the task as being more effortful, but only when they were not permitted to choose the task difficulty (assigned condition). On the other hand, individuals with a more externally oriented locus of control expressed greater frustration and reported greater effort when they were informed that they were performing the difficult task (whether they chose it or were assigned to it), but were not as frustrated and reported lower effort when performing the easy task (whether assigned or chosen).  Results will be discussed in terms of implications for future research on noise sensitivity and long-term health.

Zoom Info:

https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/93108158900?pwd=RDdTQ0Z4UE9Rb0JUenhjMG1SMkp2QT09

Meeting ID: 931 0815 8900

Passcode: 11501150

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The working schedule for this academic is here:

https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_schedule

The titles and abstracts of the talks will be added here:

https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts