Associate Professor Lauren Calandruccio, who specializes in auditory perception in the Department of Psychological Sciences, shared that while wearing masks is critical during this time, increased effort is required when listening to someone who is speaking with a mask. Wearing a mask while speaking can increase the effort required to hear and impact how much is actually heard. This problem is significantly worse for people who are deaf and/or hard-of-hearing and for people listening to their non-native language. Background noise and reverberation worsen the problem.
Article Date
August 23, 2021