Frequency-Specific Filtering Improves Speech Reception and Exam Grades in Low-Performing Female College Students

In low-performing female college students, frequency-specific filtering improved auditory processing in a controlled laboratory test and in class grades after recorded lectures. In a first test of efficacy, 76 listeners responded to a prerecorded command “Ready Charlie, go to [color] [number] now” with a simultaneous, competing distractor voice. An adaptive track estimated threshold signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Fifty-seven listeners heard unfiltered stimuli, and 19 heard filtered stimuli. In a second test of efficiency, 27 students in a senior-level neuroanatomy course volunteered to be randomized to receive both standard and filtered lecture recordings for review. Study 1 showed filtering improved speech detections in the lower third of performers (p = 0.006). Study 2 showed that listening to filtered lecture recordings improved the grades of the bottom third of overall performers (p = 0.01). A filtering algorithm improved auditory processing among low-performing female college students in an automated laboratory test and in grades following recorded lectures. An additional analysis of self-reported diagnosed and suspected ADHD suggests that the filtering could help young adult females with attention deficits.