Recognition of rapid speech by blind and sighted older adults.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether older blind participants recognize time-compressed speech better than older sighted participants.


METHODS
Three groups of adults with normal hearing participated (n = 10/group): (a) older sighted, (b) older blind, and (c) younger sighted listeners. Low-predictability sentences that were uncompressed (0% time compression ratio [TCR]) and compressed at 3 rates (40%, 50%, and 60% TCR) were presented to listeners in quiet and noise.


RESULTS
Older blind listeners recognized all time-compressed speech stimuli significantly better than did older sighted listeners in quiet. In noise, the older blind adults recognized the uncompressed and 40% TCR speech stimuli better than did the older sighted adults. Performance differences between the younger sighted adults and older blind adults were not observed.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings support the notion that older blind adults recognize time-compressed speech considerably better than older sighted adults in quiet and noise. Their performance levels are similar to those of younger adults, suggesting that age-related difficulty in understanding time-compressed speech is not an inevitable consequence of aging. Instead, frequent listening to speech at rapid rates, which was highly correlated with performance of the older blind adults, may be a useful technique to minimize age-related slowing in speech understanding.
Gordon-Salant
Sandra
S
University of Maryland, College Park, USA. ssalant@umd.edu
Friedman
Sarah A
SA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D011304:Presbycusis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult