Speech recognition and working memory capacity in young-elderly listeners: Effects of hearing sensitivity.

Abstract

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.

Speech Recognition in Adults With Cochlear Implants: The Effects of Working Memory, Phonological Sensitivity, and Aging

“…Arehart et al (2013) identified WM as a significant factor in listeners' recognition of sentences in babble processed with frequency compression, accounting for 29.3% of the variance in recognition scores. These findings are consistent with numerous other reports of correlations of verbal WM and speech perception for patients, tested in unaided and/or aided conditions, when the speech has been degraded by peripheral hearing loss (Cervera, Soler, Dasi, & Ruiz, 2009), noise (Lunner & Sundewall-Thorén, 2007;Rudner et al, 2008), spectral degradation (Schvartz, Chatterjee, & Gordon-Salant, 2008), or dynamic range compression (Piquado, Benichov, Brownell, & Wingfield, 2012;Rudner, Rönnberg, & Lunner, 2011). Thus, there is generally support for the idea that verbal WM abilities are related to speech recognition skills in patients with hearing loss listening under noisy conditions and in participants with normal hearing (NH) listening to degraded speech.…”

How age affects memory task performance in clinically normal hearing persons

“…Different studies have already reported on the interplay between sensory and cognitive functioning (e.g., Cervera et al, 2009;McCoy et al, 2005;Murphy et al, 2000;Pichora-Fuller et al, 1995;Rabbitt, 1991;Schneider et al, 2000Schneider et al, , 2002Verhaegen et al, 2014;Wingfield et al, 2005). Most of them, however, investigate memory performance in persons with reduced hearing thresholds and control for differences in peripheral hearing status in various ways.…”

“…Most of them, however, investigate memory performance in persons with reduced hearing thresholds and control for differences in peripheral hearing status in various ways. Cervera et al (2009), for example, investigate performance on auditory working memory tasks (digit ordering and serial word recall) and speech processing performance while controlling for hearing statistically. By applying pure tone averages as a covariate in an ANCOVA model, diminished performance of young old participants with presbycusis (55-65 years) disappears when compared with young participants without hearing impairment (19-25 years).…”

Hearing Loss and Approaches to Hearing Loss in Elderly

“…19,20,21 Yaşa bağlı işitme kayıplarının en önemli özelliği, özellikle saf ses işitme eşiklerinde düşüş ve konuşmayı anlamama sorunlarıyla karakterizedir. İlerleyen yaşla birlikte kokleada tiz seslerin duyulduğu 1000 Hz ve üzerindeki frekanslarda işitme kaybının daha fazla olduğu görülmektedir.…”

“…2009 yılında yapmış oldukları çalışmada, normal işitmesi olan gençlerle, yaş aralığı 55-65 yaş arasında değişen ve normale yakın dereceden orta derecede işitme kaybına sahip olan genç-yaşlı grup arasında farklı konuşmayı ayırt etme işlemlerini değerlendirmişlerdir. 21 Genç gruba göre, genç yaşlı grupta konuşmayı anlama ve kelimeyi ayırt etme işlemlerinde daha kötü performans gösterdiklerini rapor etmişlerdir. Bu çalışmada bilişsel işlemlerde yaşla birlikte görülen azalmanın konuşma algılamasında da kötüleşmeye sebep olduğu belirtilmiştir.…”