Do Ocular and Facial Features Reflect Listening-Related Fatigue and Predict Rest Decisions in Adults With and Without Hearing Loss?
Abstract
Listening-related fatigue is common in individuals with hearing loss and may affect decisions to continue with or disengage from listening, yet its objective assessment remains challenging. We used an effort-based decision-making paradigm to investigate whether subjective fatigue ratings predict objective eye- and face-related measures and whether the combination of subjective and objective measures predicts listen-or-rest decisions during a listening task. Twenty-seven German-speaking adults with normal hearing (NH; 35.7±13.1 years) and thirty Danish hearing-aid users (HA; 73.7±7.1 years) each completed 126 speech-in-noise trials with varying difficulty and reward, while on each trial they could decide whether to listen or to rest. Subsequently, subjective fatigue ratings were collected after each trial. Eye and facial features were recorded throughout the entire study. Analyses were conducted within groups and proceeded in two stages. First, linear mixed-effects models examined how subjective fatigue, task difficulty, reward, and response correctness predicted each eye and facial metric. Second, these metrics, along with the same predictors, were used to model trial-by-trial rest decisions. In NH participants, greater subjective fatigue was consistently associated with reduced eye openness and increased gaze velocity (small-to-medium effects), as well as higher blink rates (small effect). In HA users, greater fatigue similarly predicted reduced eye openness and increased gaze velocity (small-to-medium effects), together with a small increase in negative facial expressions. In both groups, rest decisions were more likely when task difficulty was higher, reward was lower, and subjective fatigue was higher. In NH participants, incorrect response and greater eye openness in the preceding trial additionally increased the probability of choosing rest. This work supports the assumption that ocular and facial indicators may serve as promising markers of preceding subjective fatigue and decisions to rest in people with hearing impairment. Recognizing these markers could play an important role in assessing and managing listening‑related fatigue.
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BibTeX
@misc{dreneva2026ocular,
title = {{Do Ocular and Facial Features Reflect Listening-Related Fatigue and Predict Rest Decisions in Adults With and Without Hearing Loss?}},
author = {Anna Dreneva and Johannes Wienen and Alina Schulte and Cora J. Caron and Dorothea Wendt and Tobias May and Hamish Innes-Brown and Lorenz Fiedler},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/7pqku_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7pqku_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Do Ocular and Facial Features Reflect Listening-Related Fatigue and Predict Rest Decisions in Adults With and Without Hearing Loss?
AU - Anna Dreneva
AU - Johannes Wienen
AU - Alina Schulte
AU - Cora J. Caron
AU - Dorothea Wendt
AU - Tobias May
AU - Hamish Innes-Brown
AU - Lorenz Fiedler
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/11
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/7pqku_v2
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7pqku_v2/
AB - Listening-related fatigue is common in individuals with hearing loss and may affect decisions to continue with or disengage from listening, yet its objective assessment remains challenging. We used an effort-based decision-making paradigm to investigate whether subjective fatigue ratings predict objective eye- and face-related measures and whether the combination of subjective and objective measures predicts listen-or-rest decisions during a listening task. Twenty-seven German-speaking adults with normal hearing (NH; 35.7±13.1 years) and thirty Danish hearing-aid users (HA; 73.7±7.1 years) each completed 126 speech-in-noise trials with varying difficulty and reward, while on each trial they could decide whether to listen or to rest. Subsequently, subjective fatigue ratings were collected after each trial. Eye and facial features were recorded throughout the entire study. Analyses were conducted within groups and proceeded in two stages. First, linear mixed-effects models examined how subjective fatigue, task difficulty, reward, and response correctness predicted each eye and facial metric. Second, these metrics, along with the same predictors, were used to model trial-by-trial rest decisions. In NH participants, greater subjective fatigue was consistently associated with reduced eye openness and increased gaze velocity (small-to-medium effects), as well as higher blink rates (small effect). In HA users, greater fatigue similarly predicted reduced eye openness and increased gaze velocity (small-to-medium effects), together with a small increase in negative facial expressions. In both groups, rest decisions were more likely when task difficulty was higher, reward was lower, and subjective fatigue was higher. In NH participants, incorrect response and greater eye openness in the preceding trial additionally increased the probability of choosing rest. This work supports the assumption that ocular and facial indicators may serve as promising markers of preceding subjective fatigue and decisions to rest in people with hearing impairment. Recognizing these markers could play an important role in assessing and managing listening‑related fatigue.
ER -