Cognitive Hearing Science: Three Memory Systems, Two Approaches, and the Ease of Language Understanding Model

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to conceptualize the subtle balancing act between language input and prediction (cognitive priming of future input) to achieve understanding of communicated content. When understanding fails, reconstructive postdiction is initiated. Three memory systems play important roles: working memory (WM), episodic long-term memory (ELTM), and semantic long-term memory (SLTM). The axiom of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model is that explicit WM resources are invoked by a mismatch between language input—in the form of rapid automatic multimodal binding of phonology—and multimodal phonological and lexical representations in SLTM. However, if there is a match between rapid automatic multimodal binding of phonology output and SLTM/ELTM representations, language processing continues rapidly and implicitly. Method and Results In our first ELU approach, we focused on experimental manipulations of signal processing in hearing aids and background noise to cause a mismatch with LTM representations; both resulted in increased dependence on WM. Our second—and main approach relevant for this review article—focuses on the relative effects of age-related hearing loss on the three memory systems. According to the ELU, WM is predicted to be frequently occupied with reconstruction of what was actually heard, resulting in a relative disuse of phonological/lexical representations in the ELTM and SLTM systems. The prediction and results do not depend on test modality per se but rather on the particular memory system. This will be further discussed. Conclusions Related to the literature on ELTM decline as precursors of dementia and the fact that the risk for Alzheimer's disease increases substantially over time due to hearing loss, there is a possibility that lowered ELTM due to hearing loss and disuse may be part of the causal chain linking hearing loss and dementia. Future ELU research will focus on this possibility.

Cognition Seen Through the Eyes of Hearing Aid Users : Working Memory Resource Allocation for Speech Perception and Recall

“…Papers 1 and 2 showed that recall performance in the SWIR test was better when noise reduction was activated compared to when it is not in 4T babble, replicating the findings from Ng et al (2013Ng et al ( , 2015. This corroborates evidence that noise reduction facilitates segregation of the target speech from the competing speech, decreasing the need for explicit processing (Rönnberg et al, 2021). Furthermore, in Paper 1 it was shown that the SWIR test with varying list length is sensitive to measuring the cognitive benefit of noise reduction.…”

“…Although these measures are important, they are not designed to address complaints about listening being effortful even when it is loud enough to be comprehended. Supplementary measures are needed in order for clinicians to understand how cognitive resources are expended during communication and how auditory intervention can support this (Anderson et al, 2018;Pichora-Fuller et al, 2016;Rönnberg et al, 2021).…”

“…Clinically feasible measures aimed at assessing the effect of hearing aid signal processing on cognitive processing have not yet been developed. However, several such measures are currently being explored within the research field of cognitive hearing science (Lunner et al, 2020;Rönnberg et al, 2013Rönnberg et al, , 2021.…”

Effects of Age on Cortical Tracking of Word-Level Features of Continuous Competing Speech

“…Although we did not find evidence that surprisal, specifically, was tracked differentially by the two age groups (i.e., there was no interaction between age and feature), the overall greater model contributions in the OAs is broadly consistent with the possibility that predictive processes were more actively engaged in that group. Additionally, because audibility-related responses showed prolonged peaks at relatively late latencies (e.g., see peaks at 250-550 ms in Figure 3), we speculate that the tracking of this feature may also reflect utilization of more intelligible speech segments in higher-level processes, such as prospective prediction and retrospective disambiguation and/or error-correction (Rönnberg et al, 2019(Rönnberg et al, , 2021.…”

Select Papers From the 8th Aging and Speech Communication Conference

“…The final work and capstone article in this collection was contributed by the conference keynote speaker, Professor Jerker Rönnberg. Dr. Rönnberg would also qualify for an award for the catchiest title in the special section, should one exist, based on his "Three Memory Systems, Two Approaches, and the Ease of Language Understanding Model" (Rönnberg et al, 2021). This brief article is a must-read for those who have not carefully considered cognitive aging and the co-occurring impacts of aging and hearing loss on auditory perception and speech communication.…”