The cocktail party conundrum
Reviewed by Jennifer K Stott

I feel, with slight sadness and disappointment, that a good cocktail party, dresses, punch bowls and all is not currently in its heyday and, therefore, opportunity of attending is slim. However, from what I remember, they tend to be a post-5pm activity. This paper looked at cognitive ability in predicting hearing performance in noise and speech. We know that speech in noise hearing ability is a little more predictable than speech against speech, however this paper found a three-fold difference in variability. The paper accounts well for variabilities such as age (mean age of participants was 23) and hearing levels. So, if the findings indicate that the more complex the listening environment, the greater the influence on our cognitive performance, should we therefore encourage a cocktail party to start the day rather than end it?

Can cognitive performance predict individual differences in speech recognition at a cocktail party?
Wang X, Abdelmalek A, Hoang-Tran C, et al.
HEAR RES
2025;465:109342.