Cocktail party effect in team sports: A perceptual advantage

Abstract

This study focuses on possible perceptual advantage in speech perception in team sports players. The overall aim was to compare the speech perception in team sports persons versus non-team sports persons, in quiet and in noise. Twenty adults including team sports players and non-team sports players performed speech discrimination task and a speech identification task. Natural digitized speech stimuli including /a/-/a/, /a/-/s/, /s/-/a/, /s/-/s/ were presented binaurally at comfortable loudness level in two conditions—in quiet and in background noise. For noise, talker babble was used at a signal-to noise ratio (SNR) of 0. Percent correct scores and reaction times were measured. Statistical analyses included a mixed model ANOVA. Results were considered significant when pi< 0.05. Significant group differences were present between team sports persons versus non-team sports persons specifically for the speech identification task. The team sports persons had higher speech identification scores and faster reaction times relative to non-team sports persons, specifically in noise (p < 0.05), thus illustrating better auditory separation of signal from noise. The findings from this research serve as a frontier to many studies in expanding our knowledge about speech perception and application of auditory training in team sports players.