title: Message and talker identification in older adults: effects of task, distinctiveness of the talkers' voices, and meaningfulness of the competing message.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this study, the authors investigated (a) the effects of task, vocal distinctiveness of the competing talkers, and meaningfulness of the competitor on older listeners' identification of a target in the presence of competition and (b) the factors that are most predictive of the variability in target identification observed among older listeners.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventeen older and 5 younger adults identified a target in the presence of a competing message. Identification was measured for 2 target types (message; talker), 3 vocal-distinctiveness levels (same talker; different talkers-same sex; different talkers-different sex), and 2 competitors (meaningful speech; nonmeaningful time-reversed speech). Multiple regression analyses were used to identify variables that were predictive of intersubject variability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant age-related differences were found in the benefit obtained from increasing vocal distinctiveness. Older listeners showed reduced target identification when (a) the competitor was normal speech compared with time-reversed speech and (b) the target was message identification compared with talker identification. Variability among listeners in the older group was partially explained by auditory and cognitive factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age-related declines in multitalker environments are not solely due to lower-level deficits in perceptual organization but are also a consequence of an interaction between lower-level and higher-level processes.
authors.affiliation: Metropolitan State College of Denver, Communication Arts and Sciences, Denver, CO 80217-3362, USA. jrossika@mscd.edu
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rossi-Katz
authors.forename: Kathryn Hoberg
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Arehart
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D055815:Young Adult