Impact of sensory acuity on auditory working memory span in young and older adults.

Abstract

The role of sensory acuity, processing speed, and working memory capacity on auditory working memory span (L-span) performance at five presentation levels was examined in 80 young (18-30 y) and 26 older adults (60-82 y). Lowering the presentation level of the L-span task had a greater detrimental effect on older adults than in the young. Furthermore, the relationship between sensory acuity and L-span performance varied as a function of age and presentation level. These results suggest that declining acuity plays an important explanatory role in age-related declines in cognitive abilities.Keywords auditory acuity; working memory; listening span; cognitive aging; perceptual processing; hearing Age-related declines in cognitive skills are typically found for fluid intelligence (see reviews in Salthouse, 2003;Verhaeghen & Salthouse, 1997), prospective memory (Kliegel & Jager, 2006;Kliegel, Jager, & Phillips, 2008), episodic memory (Addis, Wong, & Schacter, 2008;Old & Naveh-Benjamin, 2008), executive processing (Kray, Eber, & Lindenberger, 2004) and dual task performance (Glass et al., 2000;Verhaeghen, Steitz, Sliwinski, & Cerella, 2003). Some researchers have proposed that such age related difficulties reflect impaired cognitive functions such as slowed information processing (Cerella, 1985;Salthouse, 1994) or decreased working memory/attentional capacity (Park et al., 2002;Salthouse, 1992). Others have pointed out, however, that age related declines in sensory acuity may lead to difficulties in performing cognitive tasks, even when visual or auditory stimuli are presented at above-threshold levels such that they can be seen or heard (Baldwin, 2002;Baldwin, 2007;Baldwin & Struckman-Johnson, 2002;Lunner, Rudner, & Ronnberg, 2009; PichoraFuller, Schneider, & Daneman, 1995;Schneider, Daneman, & Murphy, 2005;. Accordingly, mediation of cognitive performance by sensory acuity provides another explanatory framework for age-related cognitive decline (see discussions in Baldwin, 2002;Rabbitt, 1990;Schneider et al., 2005;Schneider & Pichora-Fuller, 2000;Scialfa, 2002 Hearing impairment is pervasive among older adults (Corso, 1963;Gates, Cooper, Kannel, & Miller, 1990). In a recent population based sample of over 2000 adults 73-84 years of age, 59.9% had mid frequency clinical hearing loss (pure-tone thresholds of > 25 dB at 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) and 76.9% had high frequency hearing loss (Helzner et al., 2005). Subclinical hearing loss among older adults is ubiquitous. Pure-tone thresholds have consistently been found to increase with age (Corso, 1963;Fozard & Gordon-Salant, 2001; Schieber & Baldwin, 1996), particularly across the high frequency range which is critical for distinguishing between consonants (Botwinick, 1984;Humes, 2007;Villaume, Brown, & Darling, 1994).Hearing impairment may impact higher order cognitive processes in several ways. First, it may result in the sensory extraction stage of speech processing requiring greater allocation of limited attentional resources, leaving fewer resources available ...

The impact of tinnitus upon cognition in adults: A systematic review

“…Hearing loss was not well accounted for by the studies reviewed despite the known strong associations between tinnitus and hearing loss, and impact of hearing loss upon cognitive function (Rabbitt, 1991;Cuny et al, 2004;Tun et al, 2009;Baldwin & Ash, 2011;Dupuis, et al, 2015). A hearing loss of 25 dB is suggested to have the equivalent effect on cognitive function as ageing seven years .…”

How Linguistic Closure and Verbal Working Memory Relate to Speech Recognition in Noise—A Review

“…However, of the studies in which data analyses were conducted and reported for the young NH separately, only a few discovered associations for TRT or WM span with speech recognition. Baldwin and Ash (2011) found Lspan to be associated with speech recognition in quiet at the lowest presentation level (45 dBA). Speech recognition in noise was not examined in that study.…”

Monitoring the capacity of working memory: Executive control and effects of listening effort

“…In addition to this slowing account of the effects of perceptual effort on recall, there has been a suggestion that auditory stimuli heard at a reduced intensity level, even when suprathreshold, may truncate the duration of an already rapidly fading echoic trace (Baldwin, 2007; Baldwin & Ash, 2011). If correct, this would allow less time for each word to be perceptually encoded before its echoic trace had faded, resulting in potentially fewer items being encoded in memory in the 10-dB SL condition, and hence fewer items being accurately recalled.…”