Speech recognition and working memory capacity in young-elderly listeners: effects of hearing sensitivity.
Young normal-hearing listeners and young-elderly listeners between 55 and 65 years of age, ranging from near-normal hearing to moderate hearing loss, were compared using different speech recognition tasks (consonant recognition in quiet and in noise, and time-compressed sentences) and working memory tasks (serial word recall and digit ordering). The results showed that the group of young-elderly listeners performed worse on both the speech recognition and working memory tasks than the young listeners. However, when pure-tone audiometric thresholds were used as a covariate variable, the significant differences between groups disappeared. These results support the hypothesis that sensory decline in young-elderly listeners seems to be an important factor in explaining the decrease in speech processing and working memory capacity observed at these ages.
Cervera
Teresa C
TC
University of Valencia, Spain. teresa.cervera@uv.es
Soler
Maria J
MJ
Dasi
Carmen
C
Ruiz
Juan C
JC
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics / Q000379:methods; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult