One voice too many: adult age differences in language processing with different types of distracting sounds.

An experiment is reported that investigated factors that might contribute to age differences in the ability to process spoken language under conditions of competition from various types of background noise. Age differences in recall of spoken sentences were shown to depend on the type of background noise as well as its intensity. Increased intensity levels of just one competing speaker produced differentially greater impairment in older adults than in young adults. Analyses showed that listening performance was predicted not only by individual differences in hearing ability but also by speed of processing, which underscores the combined role of age-related auditory and cognitive changes in processing spoken language.

[1]  R Plomp,et al.  Auditive and cognitive factors in speech perception by elderly listeners. I: Development of test battery. , 1989, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[2]  L L Elliott,et al.  Development of a test of speech intelligibility in noise using sentence materials with controlled word predictability. , 1977, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[3]  S. D. Lima,et al.  How general is general slowing? Evidence from the lexical domain. , 1991, Psychology and aging.

[4]  William D. Marslen-Wilson,et al.  Lexical Representation and Process , 1991 .

[6]  John F. Corso,et al.  Age and Sex Differences in Pure‐Tone Thresholds , 1959 .

[7]  B A Schneider,et al.  Gap detection and the precedence effect in young and old adults. , 1994, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[8]  E Arslan,et al.  Effects of different noises on speech discrimination by the elderly. , 1990, Acta oto-laryngologica. Supplementum.

[9]  R V Shannon,et al.  Speech Recognition with Primarily Temporal Cues , 1995, Science.

[10]  L. Humes.  Speech understanding in the elderly. , 1996, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[11]  A. Wingfield,et al.  Speed of processing in normal aging: effects of speech rate, linguistic structure, and processing time. , 1985, Journal of gerontology.

[12]  S. Gordon-Salant,et al.  Recognition of multiply degraded speech by young and elderly listeners. , 1995, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[13]  G. Kottmeyer,et al.  [The effects of noise on man]. , 1960, HNO.

[14]  J. Mills,et al.  Presbycusis , 2005, The Lancet.

[15]  J. Corso,et al.  Age and sex differences in pure tone threshold , 1963 .

[16]  S. Gordon-Salant.  Age-related differences in speech recognition performance as a function of test format and paradigm. , 1987, Ear and hearing.

[17]  J. Dubno,et al.  Effects of mild hearing loss and age on speech recognition in noise , 1982 .

[18]  M. Daneman,et al.  How young and old adults listen to and remember speech in noise. , 1995, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[19]  T W Tillman,et al.  Perceptual masking in multiple sound backgrounds. , 1969, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[20]  S Gatehouse,et al.  Frequency resolution as a function of hearing threshold level and age. , 1991, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[21]  S. Gordon-Salant,et al.  Age effects on measures of auditory duration discrimination. , 1994, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[22]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Channel-Capacity, Intelligibility and Immediate Memory , 1968, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[23]  P. Rabbitt.  Mild hearing loss can cause apparent memory failures which increase with age and reduce with IQ. , 1990, Acta oto-laryngologica. Supplementum.

[24]  A Wingfield,et al.  Does the capacity of working memory change with age? , 1988, Experimental aging research.

[25]  Bruce A. Schneider.  Psychoacoustics and aging: Implications for everyday listening. , 1997 .

[26]  R Drullman,et al.  Speech intelligibility in noise: relative contribution of speech elements above and below the noise level. , 1995, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[27]  D D Dirks,et al.  Auditory filter characteristics and consonant recognition for hearing-impaired listeners. , 1989, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[28]  Lynn Hasher,et al.  Working Memory and Aging: Current Status of the Inhibitory View , 1996 .

[29]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Reading comprehension in the presence of unattended speech and music , 1988 .

[30]  L. Humes,et al.  Speech-recognition difficulties of the hearing-impaired elderly: the contributions of audibility. , 1990, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[31]  Denise C. Park,et al.  Handbook of the Psychology of Aging , 1979 .

[32]  L. Giambra,et al.  Age-related decrement in auditory selective attention. , 1990, Psychology and aging.

[33]  John Fletcher,et al.  Speech Understanding and Aging , 1977 .

[34]  P W Alberti,et al.  Auditory detection, discrimination and speech processing in ageing, noise-sensitive and hearing-impaired listeners. , 1990, Scandinavian audiology.

[35]  Fergus I. M. Craik,et al.  Memory Changes in Normal Aging , 1994 .

[36]  Phoneme discrimination in older persons under varying signal-to-noise conditions. , 1971, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[37]  R Drullman,et al.  Temporal envelope and fine structure cues for speech intelligibility. , 1994, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[38]  J. Vernon.  Aging and the Perception of Speech , 1981 .

[39]  Michele Miozzo,et al.  Lexical access in speech production , 2000 .

[40]  A. Treisman.  VERBAL CUES, LANGUAGE, AND MEANING IN SELECTIVE ATTENTION. , 1964, The American journal of psychology.

[41]  J. Cerella.  Information processing rates in the elderly. , 1985, Psychological bulletin.

[42]  Lynn Hasher,et al.  Working Memory, Comprehension, and Aging: A Review and a New View , 1988 .

[43]  James F. Willott,et al.  Aging and the Auditory System: Anatomy, Physiology, and Psychophysics , 1991 .

[44]  Robert D Frisina,et al.  Speech recognition in noise and presbycusis: relations to possible neural mechanisms , 1997, Hearing Research.