his program of studies in speech perception and psychoacousticsexamines the hypothesis that many of he elderly listener's difficulties in understanding speech are associated with deficits in auditory temporal processing. The current investigations and those planned for the extension period examine the problems of elderly listeners in understanding accented English, and the nature of deficits in associatedtemporal processing tasks. Age-related differences in recognition of accented English have been observed(Burda et al., 2003), although the factors that contribute to this age effect are unknown. The experiments will probe ?ecognition of English sentences spoken by native Spanish talkers, because Spanish is the native language of the majority of immigrants in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003, 2004). Alterations in the duration of acoustic cues for speech segments (phonemes); as well as alterations in the overall prosody (timing structure) of the spoken message, are major characteristics of accented English. Hence, accented English can be viewed as a form of temporally altered speech that should be quite difficult for elderly listeners to perceive accurately. The early experimental stages examine the relative importance of temporally altered segmental cues vs. sequence timing cues in speech and non-speech signals, as these cues relate to recognition of accented English. The later stages evaluate age-related differences in the effects of distracting information on perceiving temporally altered signals and the potential benefits of training on the ability to perceive critical temporal cues necessary for accurate perception. The results should elucidate the nature of communication deficits experienced by elderly listeners in understanding accented English, and will suggest methods to improve their understanding of this form of altered speech, which they are likely to encounter during communication with non-native talkers who frequently work in the service sector (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004).

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award (R37)
Project #
4R37AG009191-16
Application #
7155101
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (NSS)
Program Officer
Chen, Wen G
Project Start
1991-03-15
Project End
2012-01-31
Budget Start
2007-02-01
Budget End
2008-01-31
Support Year
16
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$294,218
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland College Park
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
790934285
City
College Park
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
20742
Goupell, Matthew J; Gaskins, Casey R; Shader, Maureen J et al. (2017) Age-Related Differences in the Processing of Temporal Envelope and Spectral Cues in a Speech Segment. Ear Hear 38:e335-e342
Fitzgibbons, Peter J; Gordon-Salant, Sandra (2016) Age effects in discrimination of intervals within accented tone sequences differing in accent type and sequence presentation rate. J Acoust Soc Am 140:3819
Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H; Fitzgibbons, Peter J et al. (2015) Effects of age and hearing loss on recognition of unaccented and accented multisyllabic words. J Acoust Soc Am 137:884-97
Fitzgibbons, Peter J; Gordon-Salant, Sandra (2015) Age effects in discrimination of intervals within rhythmic tone sequences. J Acoust Soc Am 137:388-96
Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H; Fitzgibbons, Peter J et al. (2013) Recognition of accented and unaccented speech in different maskers by younger and older listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 134:618-27
Veneman, Carrie E; Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Matthews, Lois J et al. (2013) Age and measurement time-of-day effects on speech recognition in noise. Ear Hear 34:288-99
Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Friedman, Sarah A (2011) Recognition of rapid speech by blind and sighted older adults. J Speech Lang Hear Res 54:622-31
Fitzgibbons, Peter J; Gordon-Salant, Sandra (2011) Age effects in discrimination of repeating sequence intervals. J Acoust Soc Am 129:1490-500
Fitzgibbons, Peter J; Gordon-Salant, Sandra (2010) Age-related differences in discrimination of temporal intervals in accented tone sequences. Hear Res 264:41-7
Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H; Fitzgibbons, Peter J (2010) Recognition of accented English in quiet by younger normal-hearing listeners and older listeners with normal-hearing and hearing loss. J Acoust Soc Am 128:444-55

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