Speech comprehension difficulties in older adults: cognitive slowing or age-related changes in hearing?
Abstract
Speech comprehension declines more rapidly in older adults than in younger adults as speech rate increases. This effect is usually attributed to a slowing of brain function with age. Alternatively, this Age X Speed interaction could reflect the inability of the older adult's auditory system to cope with speed-induced stimulus degradation. When the authors speeded speech in a way that produced minimal degradation, both age groups were equally affected. However, when speech was speeded using other methods, word identification declined more in older than in younger adults. Hence, auditory decline rather than cognitive slowing may be responsible for older adults' poorer performance in speeded conditions.
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Age-related problems with hearing can affect users' speech comprehension and problem solving performance if messages are not clear or loud enough.
“If messages are not clear enough or not loud enough, users' hearing loss can affect their speech comprehension and problem solving performance (Rabbitt, 1990; Schneider et al., 2005).”
From Reducing working memory load in spoken dialogue systems (2009) · cites this paper as Schneider et al., 2005
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- Authors
- Schneider, B. A., Daneman, M., & Murphy, D. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Venue
- Psychology and Aging
- Published
- 2005
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 261-271
- ISSN
- 0882-7974 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1498
- OpenAlex
- W2089617420
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 3.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychology and Aging (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- speech understanding, older adults, speech rate, cognitive slowing, age-related hearing loss, auditory system, word recognition, speech degradation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Speech Perception, Task Performance and Analysis, Hearing Loss
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