Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Older adults are reported to have more difficulty understanding degraded speech than younger adults. This may be due to greater recruitment of cognitive resources in adverse listening conditions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between listening effort as measured by a dual task paradigm and cognitive abilities, specifically, working memory and selective attention, in normal-hearing older and younger adults in various background noise conditions. Results revealed that speech recognition scores were poorer for older adults, and speech recognition scores declined with decreasing signal-to-noise ratio. Stroop test scores suggested better selective attention ability in the younger participants, with no significant correlation to listening effort. No other significant results were found. Suggestions are made for future studies to continue investigating the effects of age and cognitive ability on listening effort.
Author: Sapna Mehta
Institution: City University of New York
Language: English
Subfield: Speech and Hearing
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1786543169