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Objective and Subjective Measures of Children's Engagement With Auditory Narratives.

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Title: Objective and Subjective Measures of Children's Engagement With Auditory Narratives.
Authors: Robinson, Sophia M. H.1,2, Platkin, Rafaela1,3, Bobbitt, Sarah3,4, Van Hedger, Stephen3,5, Butler, Blake E.1,3,6 bbutler9@uwo.ca
Source: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Apr2026, Vol. 69 Issue 4, p1814-1824. 11p.
Subject Terms: *Self-evaluation, *Statistical correlation, *Cognitive testing, *Data analysis, *Attention, *Research, *Storytelling, *Auditory perception, *Speech perception, *Children, Fantasy (Psychology), Task performance, Research funding, Receiver operating characteristic curves, Mann Whitney U Test, Descriptive statistics, Statistics, Friedman test (Statistics), Reaction time
Abstract: Purpose: Listening engagement describes the extent to which an individual recruits cognitive resources for a listening task, potentially contributing to the experience of listening effort--the subjective experience of exerting cognitive resources to process sounds. This study explored the use of spoken narrative stimuli to assess two different measures of listening engagement in children and objectively assess their engagement in stories. Method: Seventy children (31 female; Mage = 10.3 years) between the ages of 9-12 years listened to two engaging stories containing different child-preferred themes and a non-engaging control story lacking these themes. Engagement was measured using two methods: a self-report measure (a version of the Story World Absorption Scale) and a performance-based measure (a speeded directional judgment task) presented concurrently with the stories. Results: Stories with child-preferred themes were rated as more engaging than the control story via self-report. Moreover, secondary task reaction times were significantly slower while listening to engaging stories than the control story, suggesting that engaging stories placed higher demands on cognitive resources. Intersubject correlation analyses revealed that reaction times across the duration of engaging stories were more consistent than across the control story, suggesting that reaction times reflected a shared response to narrative content. Conclusion: Together, these results suggest that children's engagement with auditory narratives can be measured objectively and that engagement varies across stories in a manner that is qualitatively similar to adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
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  Data: Objective and Subjective Measures of Children's Engagement With Auditory Narratives.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Robinson%2C+Sophia+M%2E+H%2E%22">Robinson, Sophia M. H.</searchLink><relatesTo>1,2</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Platkin%2C+Rafaela%22">Platkin, Rafaela</searchLink><relatesTo>1,3</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Bobbitt%2C+Sarah%22">Bobbitt, Sarah</searchLink><relatesTo>3,4</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Van+Hedger%2C+Stephen%22">Van Hedger, Stephen</searchLink><relatesTo>3,5</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Butler%2C+Blake+E%2E%22">Butler, Blake E.</searchLink><relatesTo>1,3,6</relatesTo><i> bbutler9@uwo.ca</i>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Speech%2C+Language+%26+Hearing+Research%22">Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research</searchLink>. Apr2026, Vol. 69 Issue 4, p1814-1824. 11p.
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– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Purpose: Listening engagement describes the extent to which an individual recruits cognitive resources for a listening task, potentially contributing to the experience of listening effort--the subjective experience of exerting cognitive resources to process sounds. This study explored the use of spoken narrative stimuli to assess two different measures of listening engagement in children and objectively assess their engagement in stories. Method: Seventy children (31 female; Mage = 10.3 years) between the ages of 9-12 years listened to two engaging stories containing different child-preferred themes and a non-engaging control story lacking these themes. Engagement was measured using two methods: a self-report measure (a version of the Story World Absorption Scale) and a performance-based measure (a speeded directional judgment task) presented concurrently with the stories. Results: Stories with child-preferred themes were rated as more engaging than the control story via self-report. Moreover, secondary task reaction times were significantly slower while listening to engaging stories than the control story, suggesting that engaging stories placed higher demands on cognitive resources. Intersubject correlation analyses revealed that reaction times across the duration of engaging stories were more consistent than across the control story, suggesting that reaction times reflected a shared response to narrative content. Conclusion: Together, these results suggest that children's engagement with auditory narratives can be measured objectively and that engagement varies across stories in a manner that is qualitatively similar to adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
– Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ehh&AN=192982193
RecordInfo BibRecord:
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00646
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 11
        StartPage: 1814
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Self-evaluation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Statistical correlation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cognitive testing
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      – SubjectFull: Attention
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      – SubjectFull: Storytelling
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      – SubjectFull: Auditory perception
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      – SubjectFull: Speech perception
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      – SubjectFull: Children
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      – SubjectFull: Fantasy (Psychology)
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      – SubjectFull: Friedman test (Statistics)
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      – SubjectFull: Reaction time
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      – TitleFull: Objective and Subjective Measures of Children's Engagement With Auditory Narratives.
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              Text: Apr2026
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              Y: 2026
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