The second half of the year 2019 was an intensive period for Defne and Patrycja. They combined forces and spent hours of work on designing, planning, and conducting a study aiming to broaden scientific knowledge about the factors influencing listening effort as reflected in the pupil responses. Supported by the supervisory team, they tried to design a study that probes both internal, i.e. fatigue, memory, and external, i.e. task demand factors. This complex study was divided into sessions on two different days.
Participants of this study (34 normal hearing listeners) were kindly asked to visit Eriksholm Research Centre twice in a period of autumn 2019 – winter 2020 and to perform a set of listening tasks. From the participants’ feedback Patrycja and Defne have learned that the study was demanding, yet also highlighted every day listening difficulties comparable to those experienced by hearing-impaired listeners. As the target group in the HEAR-ECO project include hearing-impaired listeners, this feedback boosted confidence in the validity of the study design.
“The combination study shows the strength of Hear-Eco. I’ve learned so much from working in the interdisciplinary team. Patrycja’s background in engineering and mine in neuropsychology enabled us to build a unique study.”
Defne Alfandari
“It was an interesting, yet challenging process. The combination study has taught me that ground-breaking research requires both interdisciplinary skills and high level of collaboration in the team. I have definitely grown as a researcher through this experience.”
Patrycja Ksiazek
Currently, Patrycja and Defne are in the process of data analysis. All researchers look forward to seeing the results, being able to answer some of the important research questions and setting the further research directions. To learn more about the results, stay posted with our channels on Social Media and publications.
Study set-up. The participant listened to auditory stimuli while her pupil size was measured with remote eye-tracking equipment
