Spoken Language Comprehension in Older Adults: Interactions between Sensory and Cognitive Change in Normal Aging

Arthur Wingfield; Patricia A. Tun

doi:10.1055/s-2001-15632

Seminars in Hearing, Inhaltsverzeichnis

Semin Hear 2001; 22(3): 287-302
DOI: 10.1055/s-2001-15632

Spoken Language Comprehension in Older Adults: Interactions between Sensory and Cognitive Change in Normal Aging

Arthur Wingfield, Patricia A. Tun

Department of Psychology and Volen National Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Adult aging is accompanied by changes in cognitive factors, such as a general slowing in perceptual and cognitive operations, a limitation in working memory capacity, and reduced efficiency of executive function in dividing attention. This article considers how these factors join with changes in hearing ability to affect how well older adults are able to comprehend speech and encode that understanding in memory for later use. Factors receiving special attention are negative effects of rapid speech rates and speech heard in background noise. Also examined are positive effects of linguistic context and effective use of speech prosody in speech comprehension and recall in older adults.

KEYWORD

Speech recognition - speech prosody - time-compressed speech - cognitive

Volltext

Referenzen

REFERENCES

1 Salthouse T A. The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychol Rev . 1996; 103 403-428
2 Mullennix J W, Pisoni D B, Martin C S. Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition. J Acoust Soc Am . 1989; 85 365-372
3 Sommers M S. Stimulus variability and spoken word recognition. II. The effects of age and hearing impairment. J Acoust Soc Am . 1997; 101 2278-2288
4 Gow D W, Gordon P C. Lexical and prelexical influences on word segmentation: evidence from priming. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform . 1995; 21 344-359
5 Lindblom B, Brownlee S, Davis B, Moon S J. Speech transforms. Speech Communication . 1992; 11 357-368
6 Carpenter P A, Miyaki A, Just M A. Working memory constraints in comprehension: evidence from individual differences, aphasia, and aging. In: Gernsbacher M, ed. Handbook of Psycholinguistics San Diego, CA: Academic Press 1994: 1075-1122
7 Baddeley A D. The concept of working memory. In: Gathercole S, ed. Models of Short-Term Memory Hove, UK: Psychology Press 1996: 1-28
8 Wingfield A, Stine E AL, Lahar C J, Aberdeen J S. Does the capacity of working memory change with age?. Exp Aging Res . 1988; 14 103-107
9 Craik F IM. Age differences in human memory. In: Birren JE, Schaie KW, eds. Handbook of the Psychology of Aging New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold 1977: 384-420
10 Daneman M, Carpenter P A. Individual differences in working memory and reading. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav . 1980; 19 450-466
11 Waters G, Caplan D. The measurement of verbal working memory capacity and its relation to reading comprehension. Q J Exp Psychol . 1996; 49A 51-79
12 Caplan D, Waters G S. Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension. Behav Brain Sci . 1999; 22 77-126
13 Kemper S. Imitation of complex syntactic constructions by elderly adults. Appl Psycholinguist . 1986; 7 277-288
14 Kemtes K A, Kemper S. Younger and older adults' on-line processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences. Psychol Aging . 1997; 12 362-371
15 Light L L, Capps J L. Comprehension of pronouns in young and older adults. Dev Psychol . 1986; 22 580-585
16 Zurif E B, Swinney D, Prather P, Wingfield A, Brownell H. The allocation of memory resources during sentence comprehension: evidence from the elderly. J Psycholinguist Res . 1995; 24 165-182
17 Working Group on Speech Understanding and Aging. J Acoust Soc Am . 1988; 83 859-895
18 Frisina D R, Frisina R D. Speech recognition in noise and presbycusis: relations to possible neural mechanisms. Hear Res . 1997; 106 95-104
19 Gordon-Salant S. Age-related differences in speech recognition performance as a function of test format and paradigm. Ear Hear . 1987; 8 270-276
20 Humes L E. Speech understanding in the elderly. J Am Acad Audiol . 1996; 7 161-167
21 Jerger J, Jerger S, Oliver T, Pirozzolo F. Speech understanding in the elderly. Ear Hear . 1989; 10 79-89
22 Schneider B A, Pichora-Fuller M K. Implications of perceptual deterioration for cognitive aging research. In: Craik FIM, Salthouse TA, eds. The Handbook of Aging and Cognition, 2nd ed Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 2000: 155-219
23 Anderson N D, Craik F IM, Naveh-Benjamin M. The attentional demands of encoding and retrieval in younger and older adults: 1. Evidence from divided attention costs. Psychol Aging . 1998; 13 405-423
24 McDowd J M, Craik F IM. Effects of aging and task difficulty on divided attention performance. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform . 1988; 14 267-280
25 Barr R A, Giambra L M. Age-related decrement in auditory selective attention. Psychol Aging . 1990; 3 597-599
26 Hasher L, Zacks R T. Working memory, comprehension, and aging: A review and a new view. In: Bower GH, ed. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Advances in Research and Theory, Vol 22. San Diego, CA: Academic Press 1988: 193-225
27 Stoltzfus E R, Hasher L, Zacks R T. Working memory and aging: current status of the inhibitory view. In: Richardson JR, ed. Working Memory and Cognition New York: Oxford University Press 1996: 66-88
28 Miyake A, Shah P. Models of Working Memory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1999
29 Salthouse T A. Theoretical Perspectives on Cognitive Aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1991
30 Light L L. Interactions between memory and language in old age. In: Birren JE, Schaie KW, eds. Handbook of the psychology of aging, 3rd ed San Diego, CA: Academic Press 1990: 275-290
31 Wingfield A, Stine-Morrow E AL. Language and speech. In: Craik FIM, Salthouse TA, eds. Handbook of Aging and Cognition, 2nd ed Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 2000: 359-416
32 Nicholas M, Barth C, Obler L K, Au R, Albert M L. Naming in normal aging and dementia of the Alzheimer's type. In: Goodglass H, Wingfield A, eds. Anomia: Neuroanatomical and Cognitive Correlates San Diego, CA: Academic Press 1997: 166-188
33 Pichora-Fuller M K, Schneider B, Daneman M. How young and old adults listen to and remember speech in noise. J Acoust Soc Am . 1995; 97 593-607
34 Wingfield A, Aberdeen J S, Stine E AL. Word onset gating and linguistic context in spoken word recognition by young and elderly adults. J Gerontol Psychol Sci . 1991; 46 127-129
35 Wingfield A, Alexander A H, Cavigelli S. Does memory constrain utilization of top-down information in spoken word recognition?. <~>Evidence from normal aging. Lang Speech . 1994; 37 221-235
36 Kalikow D N, Stevens K N, Elliott L L. Development of a test of speech intelligibility in noise using sentence materials with controlled word predictability. J Acoust Soc Am . 1977; 61 1337-1351
37 Tun P A. Fast noisy speech: age differences in processing rapid speech with background noise. Psychol Aging . 1998; 3 424-434
38 Wingfield A, Poon L W, Lombardi L, Lowe D. Speed of processing in normal aging: effects of speech rate, linguistic structure, and processing time. J Gerontol . 1985; 40 579-585
39 Shattuck-Hufnagel S, Turk A E. A prosody tutorial for investigators of auditory sentence processing. J Psycholinguist Res . 1996; 25 193-247
40 Cohen G, Faulkner D. Does ``elderspeak'' work?. <~>The effect of intonation and stress on comprehension and recall of spoken discourse in old age. Lang Communication . 1986; 6 91-98
41 Kjelgaard M M, Titone D A, Wingfield A. The influence of prosodic structure on the interpretation of temporary syntactic ambiguity by young and elderly listeners. Exp Aging Res . 1999; 25 187-207
42 Wingfield A, Wayland S C, Stine E AL. Adult age differences in the use of prosody for syntactic parsing and recall of spoken sentences. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci . 1992; 47 350-356
43 Lane H, Grosjean F. Perception of reading rate by speakers and listeners. J Exp Psychol . 1973; 97 141-147
44 Speer S R, Wayland S C, Kjelgaard M M, Wingfield A. Effect of speaking rate and paragraph structure on the production of sentence prosody. J Acoust Soc Am . 1994; 95 2979-2980
45 Foulke E. The perception of time compressed speech. In: Horton Dl, Jenkins JJ, eds. The Perception of Language Columbus, OH: Merrill 1971: 79-107
46 Chodorow M S. Time-compressed speech and the study of lexical and syntactic processing. In: Cooper WE, Walker ECT, eds. Sentence processing: Psycholinguistics studies presented to Merrill Garrett Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum 1979: 87-111
47 Gordon-Salant S, Fitzgibbons P J. Selected cognitive factors and speech recognition performance among young and elderly listeners. J Speech Hear Res . 1997; 40 423-431
48 Konkle D F, Beasley D S, Bess F H. Intelligibility of time-altered speech in relation to chronological aging. J Speech Hear Res . 1977; 20 108-115
49 Luterman D M, Welsh O L, Melrose J. Responses of aged males to time-altered speech. J Speech Hear Res . 1966; 9 226-230
50 Sticht T G, Gray B B. The intelligibility of time compressed speech as a function of age and hearing loss. J Speech Hear Res . 1969; 12 443-448
51 Schneider B A, Pichora-Fuller M K, Kowalchuk D, Lamb M. Gap detection and the precedence effect in young and old adults. J Acoust Soc Am . 1994; 95 980-991
52 Wingfield A, Ducharme J L. Effects of age and passage difficulty on listening-rate preferences for time-altered speech. J Gerontol Psychol Sci . 1999; 54B 199-202
53 Mattys S L. The use of time during lexical processing and segmentation: a review. Psychonom Bull Rev . 1997; 4 310-329
54 Schmitt J F. The effects of time compression and time expansion on passage comprehension by elderly listeners. J Speech Hear Res . 1983; 26 373-377
55 Schmitt J F, McCrosky R L. Sentence comprehension in elderly listeners: the factor of rate. J Gerontol . 1981; 36 441-445
56 Small J A, Anderson E S, Kempler D. Effects of working memory capacity on understanding rate-altered speech. Aging Neuropsychol Cogn . 1997; 4 126-139
57 Overmann R A. Processing time as a variable in the comprehension of time-compressed speech. In: Foulke E, ed. Proceedings of the 2nd Louisville Conference on Rate and/or Frequency-Controlled Speech Louisville, KY: University of Louisville 1971: 103-118
58 Wingfield A, Tun P A, Koh C K, Rosen M J. Regaining lost time: adult aging and the effect of time restoration on recall of time-compressed speech. Psychol Aging . 1999; 14 380-389
59 Wingfield A, Lindfield K C. Multiple memory systems in the processing of speech: evidence from aging. Exp Aging Res . 1995; 21 101-121
60 Titone D, Prentice K J, Wingfield A. Resource allocation during spoken discourse processing: effects of age and passage difficulty as revealed by self-paced listening. Mem Cogn . 2000; 28 1029-1040
61 Moray N. Attention in dichotic listening: affective cues and the influence of instructions. Q J Exp Psychol . 1959; 11 56-60
62 Broadbent D E. Decision and Stress. New York: Academic Press; 1971
63 Kahneman D. Attention and Effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1973
64 Burke D M. Language, aging, and inhibitory deficits: evaluation of a theory. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci . 1997; 52B 254-264
65 Zacks R T, Hasher L. Cognitive gerontology and attentional inhibition: a reply to Burke and McDowd. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci . 1997; 52B 274-283
66 Tun P A, Wingfield A. One voice too many: adult age differences in language processing with different types of distracting sounds. J Gerontol Psychol Sci . 1999; 54B 317-327
67 ANSI. American national standards for audiometers. ANSI S3.6-1989. New York: American National Standards Institute; 1989
68 Grosjean F. Gating. Lang Cogn Process . 1996; 11 597-604
69 Wingfield A, Lindfield K C, Goodglass H. Effects of age and hearing sensitivity on the use of prosodic information in spoken word recognition. J Speech Lang Hear . 2000; 43 915-925
70 Kemper S. Elderspeak: speech accommodations to older adults. Aging Cogn . 1994; 1 17-28
71 Kemper S, Harden T. Experimentally disentangling what's beneficial about elderspeak from what's not. Psychol Aging . 1999; 14 656-670
72 Grosjean F. The recognition of words after their acoustic offset: evidence and implications. Percep Psychophys . 1985; 38 299-310
73 Rabbitt P. Channel capacity, intelligibility, and immediate memory. Q J Exp Psychol . 1968; 20 241-248
74 Rabbitt P. Mild hearing loss can cause apparent memory failures which increase with age and reduce with IQ. Acta Otolaryngol Suppl . 1991; 476 167-176