How young and old adults listen to and remember speech in noise

Abstract

Two experiments using the materials of the Revised Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN-R) Test [Bilger et al., J. Speech Hear. Res. 27, 32-48 (1984)] were conducted to investigate age-related differences in the identification and the recall of sentence-final words heard in a babble background. In experiment 1, the level of the babble was varied to determine psychometric functions (percent correct word identification as a function of S/N ratio) for presbycusics, old adults with near-normal hearing, and young normal-hearing adults, when the sentence-final words were either predictable (high context) or unpredictable (low context). Differences between the psychometric functions for high- and low-context conditions were used to show that both groups of old listeners derived more benefit from supportive context than did young listeners. In experiment 2, a working memory task [Daneman and Carpenter, J. Verb. Learn. Verb. Behav. 19, 450-466 (1980)] was added to the SPIN task for young and old adults. Specifically, after listening to and identifying the sentence-final words for a block of n sentences, the subjects were asked to recall the last n words that they had identified. Old subjects recalled fewer of the items they had perceived than did young subjects in all S/N conditions, even though there was no difference in the recall ability of the two age groups when sentences were read. Furthermore, the number of items recalled by both age groups was reduced in adverse S/N conditions. The resutls were interpreted as supporting a processing model in which reallocable processing resources are used to support auditory processing when listening becomes difficult either because of noise, or because of age-related deterioration in the auditory system. Because of this reallocation, these resources are unavailable to more central cognitive processes such as the storage and retrieval functions of working memory, so that "upstream" processing of auditory information is adversely affected.

Relations between aging sensory/sensorimotor and cognitive functions

“…A growing number of studies have compared young (typically in their second and third decades) and older adults (in their sixth and seventh decades) on measures of cognitive ability while systematically manipulating the level of sensory load. For example, Pichora-Fuller et al [49] presented sentences auditorially to younger and older adults in the context of multi-speaker crowd noise. This and subsequent studies are notable for their rigorous control of individual differences in auditory acuity, using screening methods to select participants or to individually adjust the sound intensity levels used to present the experimental stimuli.…”

“…This and subsequent studies are notable for their rigorous control of individual differences in auditory acuity, using screening methods to select participants or to individually adjust the sound intensity levels used to present the experimental stimuli. Pichora-Fuller et al [49] found that word recognition for the auditory information was compromised as a result of reductions in signalto-noise (S/N) ratios. Importantly, older adults were only able to perform comparably to younger listeners when S/N ratios were substantially increased, and they utilized contextual cues more effectively than younger adults under high noise conditions.…”

“…In such a shared model, the increasing interdependence arises from progressive resource limitations and possible compensatory reallocation. For example, Pichora-Fuller et al [49] observed in a speech-recognition study that older adults made more use of contextual cues than young adults when the auditory signal was degraded, thus utilizing cognitive processes to compensate for compromised sensory information. Similarly, Li et al [31] observed older adults preserving high levels of walking performance while memorizing, but jeopardizing their cognitive performance to do so.…”

Intact Spectral but Abnormal Temporal Processing of Auditory Stimuli in Autism

“…It is implied naturally from this organisation that short-range lateral connections mediate integration or segregation of spectral information from simple sounds such as pure tones. The processing of more complex sounds, such as noise or speech, involves larger neural assemblies (Scott and Johnsrude 2003) and, moreover, segregating different simultaneously presented sounds sources requires reallocation of additional supporting neural processing resources (Pichora-Fuller et al 1995). Also, the auditory system has a hemispheric lateralisation.…”

Aging Effects on Behavioural Estimates of Suppression with Short Suppressors

“…As people age, this task becomes increasingly difficult, and elevated thresholds alone cannot account for this increased difficulty (e.g., Pichora-Fuller et al 1995). One explanation for this discrepancy may be attributed to the decrease in the en-docochlear potential that tends to occur with increasing age (e.g., Schuknecht et al 1974).…”