Speaker
Description
Conversations often take place simultaneously with other activities. These dual-task situations place high demands on cognitive and sensory resources. Most previous research has overlooked how naturalistic conversations are affected by dual-tasking and how individuals with hearing loss (HL) adapt their communication behaviours under dual-tasking demands. To address this gap, we conducted two studies.In Study 1 we explored what activities people undertake while conversing. Fourteen adults with HL (aged 40–75) participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants described real-life experiences of engaging in conversations while simultaneously carrying out other tasks. Participants reported a range of activities involving visual-motor and cognitive demands, such as driving, cooking, and walking.In Study 2, we will examine how engaging in dual-task conversations influence both conversational behaviour and performance on the other task. Pairs of frequent conversational partners (one with HL) will engage in conversations, while one partner simultaneously performs one of two screen-based tasks designed to increase demands on attentional and visuomotor capacities analogous to the demands introduced by the most frequently reported activities from Study 1. Results from Study 2 will include the impact of dual-tasking on conversational behaviours (e.g., speaking time, speech balance), on subjective experiences (e.g., perceived conversation success), and on error rates for the screen-based tasks.Study 1 contributes to the development of a structured catalogue of everyday dual-task conversation scenarios that could serve as inspiration for ecologically valid assessments of hearing technologies. Study 2 further provides a pilot test of the feasibility of simulating real-life dual-task scenarios in controlled settings.