Engaging effort improves efficiency during spoken word recognition in cochlear implant users

Word recognition is generally thought to be supported by an automatic process of lexical competition, at least in young, normal hearing listeners. When listening becomes challenging, either due to the environment (noise) or the individual (hearing loss), the dynamics of lexical competition change, and word recognition can begin to feel effortful and fatiguing. In cochlear implant users, several dimensions of lexical competition have been identified that affect the time course of when lexical competition begins (Wait-and-See), how competition is resolved (Sustained Activation), and how quicky lexical targets are activated (Activation Rate). To investigate whether how listeners recognize words in challenging situations is related to how much effort they engage, a group of cochlear implant users (N=79) completed a pupillometry task as part of a larger battery of clinical and experimental tasks. Listeners who engaged more effort, as indexed by peak pupil size difference score, fell lower along the Wait-and-See dimension, suggesting that these listeners are engaging effort to be less Wait-and-See (or to begin the process of lexical competition earlier). Listeners who engaged effort earlier had better word and sentence recognition outcomes. The timing of effort was predicted by age and spectral fidelity, but no audiological or demographic factors predicted peak pupil size difference. The dissociation between the magnitude of engaged effort and the timing of effort suggests they perform different goals for spoken word recognition.