False hearing occurs when listeners report perceiving a contextually appropriate word that differs from the one actually presented. This study examined whether false hearing and listeners' metacognitive sensitivity differed between positive- and negative-mood conditions.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No immediate practice change is warranted, but this research suggests mood state may be a meaningful variable in clinical speech-in-noise evaluations that is currently uncontrolled.
Understanding how mood affects mishearing and self-monitoring could refine speech-in-noise test interpretation and hearing rehabilitation approaches.
- 01Listener mood influenced rates of 'false hearing' (mishearing contextually plausible words) during speech-in-noise tasks.
- 02Metacognitive accuracy — how well listeners judged their own hearing — also varied by mood condition.
- 03Published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research (JSLHR).
- 04Findings have potential implications for understanding variability in clinical SiN test results.
- 05Study adds a psychological dimension to auditory perception research.
Listener mood affects the rate of false hearing during speech-in-noise perception tasks.
studypartially supportedMood condition influences metacognitive accuracy (self-evaluation of hearing) in noisy settings.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42911550
- DOI
- 10.1044/2026_JSLHR-26-00302.
- Journal
- Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Listeners performing speech-in-noise perception tasks under different mood conditions
- Intervention
- Experimentally induced mood conditions during speech-in-noise perception tasks
- Comparator
- Neutral or differing mood conditions
Primary outcomes
Rate of false hearing (mishearing contextually plausible words); Metacognitive evaluation accuracy of speech-in-noise perception