Objective: The ultimate goal of voice therapy is to enable patients to apply learned techniques effectively in real-world communication scenarios, achieving sufficient automaticity where techniques can be executed with minimal cognitive effort. This presentation examines how dual-task paradigms can be used to measure cognitive load during the acquisition of voice therapy techniques, discussing the relative advantages of these paradigms compared to self-report and psychophysiological assessments. Additionally, we investigate how task complexity within these paradigms may impact sensitivity in detecting cognitive load changes associated with voice and speech modifications.

Methods / Design: Our first study examined the impact of different speaking modes (i.e., habitual, whisper, and clear speech) on cognitive load using the Simon task, a visual reaction time measure based on responses to congruent and incongruent stimuli. Fifteen vocally-healthy adults completed 28 trials per speaking condition while responding to visual stimuli and counting aloud in habitual, whisper, or clear speech modes. In a subsequent ongoing study, we are testing the feasibility of using simpler visual and auditory reaction time tasks to assess cognitive load, thereby removing the cognitive demands associated with stimulus congruence in the Simon task. We hypothesize that these simplified tasks will better reveal differences in cognitive load associated with voice modifications.

Results: In the first study, results indicated that reaction times were significantly longer for clear speech than for whispering or habitual speech, suggesting a higher cognitive load in clear speech conditions. Preliminary results from the second experiment show significantly shorter reaction times overall compared to the Simon task, with notably longer reaction times for auditory tasks than for visual ones, suggesting different cognitive demands between modalities.

Conclusions: Our findings support the utility of dual-task paradigms in assessing cognitive load associated with the acquisition of voice therapy techniques, with task complexity influencing sensitivity to cognitive load changes across speech conditions. In response to these promising outcomes, we will describe our efforts to develop an initial prototype of open-access software for these tasks, featuring integrated voice recording functions for use in both clinical and experimental settings.