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- Title
HIDDEN COSTS OF EFFORTFUL LISTENING ON SPEECH COMPREHENSION.
- Authors
STANLEY, RAYMOND; TUN, PATRICIA A.; BROWNELL, HIRAM; WINGFIELD, ARTHUR
- Abstract
Older adults are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, with the number of adults age 65 or older expected to grow from 35 million in the year 2000, to 70.3 million in 2030. Among this group, hearing loss is the third most prevalent chronic medical condition, exceeded only by arthritis and hypertension. When combined with age-related declines in working memory,executive function and processing speed, comprehension of everyday connected speech can represent a significant challenge for older adults. In this article we review the literature on speech comprehension in older adults, beginning with the effects of age and hearing acuity on isolating a target speaker in a background of noise or other voices. We show that even with mild hearing loss, the perceptual effort required for successful speech recognition may draw on cognitive resources that would otherwise be available for downstream comprehension operations, especially when the speech input is syntactically complex. We conclude by emphasizing the need to take into account sensory-cognitive interactions when conducting research on speech processing and memory in adult aging.
- Publication
Journal of Communications Research, 2012, Vol 4, Issue 3, p157
- ISSN
1935-3537
- Publication type
Academic Journal