Listening Fatigue in College Students

Fatigue is a term used in several fields; yet, use of the term mental fatigue regarding listening to auditory signals has been minimal. Of studies which have been completed, listening fatigue has mostly included populations such as children and individuals with hearing loss. At this point, listening fatigue research has not included college students. Learning may be negatively impacted by student’s listening fatigue and sustained effort. This study examined neuro-typical participants by evaluating two conditions. The first condition allowed for examination of objective performance (i.e., auditory processing tests) and subjective ratings of fatigue before a full day of classes, compared to the second condition that allowed for examination of objective performance and subjective rating after a full day of classes. While some individual changes in performance were noted, the objective testing did not yield significantly different results between before class and after class conditions. The subjective results indicated significantly more fatigue in the after class condition as compared to the before class condition. Results from this study may suggest college students are able maintain their auditory processing abilities after being in class; however, maintaining this ability may be at the expense of their perceived fatigue.