The project proposes a program of studies in speech perception and auditory psychophysics to examine the hypothesis that many of the predominant difficulties in speech understanding for elderly listeners are related to underlying problems in auditory temporal processing. Research indicates that elderly listeners have particular problems recognizing speech that is degraded by alteration of speaking rate and/or reverberation, with rapid speech eliciting the strongest age-related processing deficits. The listeners' difficulty in understanding temporally-altered speech may be attributed to deficits in peripheral sensory mechanisms, centrally mediated timing mechanisms, and age-related changes in cognitive function. The project investigates the relative contributions of peripheral hearing impairment, degree of stimulus temporal complexity, and altered cognitive demands on auditory processing using rate-altered speech and non-speech stimulus sequences. The project comprises four stages of investigation, each consisting of a series of speech recognition experiments and psychoacoustic temporal discrimination and identification tasks. Stage 1 (mos. 1-18) investigates the principal temporal factors contributing to processing deficits associated with rate-altered speech sentences and non-speech sequential patterns. Stage 2 (mos. 13-36) examines the effects of varying stimulus temporal complexity and rate alteration on recognition and discrimination of speech and non-speech sequential sequences. Stage 3 (mos. 30-48) evaluates the effects of time alteration on enhancement of speech recognition and recall of speech and non-speech stimulus sequences. Stage 4 (mos. 49-60) examines the benefits of time-alteration enhancement techniques for recognition of speech and non-speech sequences of varying rhythmic complexity. For each stage of the investigation, the independent effects of cognitive demands, subject age, and hearing loss on listener performance will be examined. Subjects in the project will include young and elderly listeners with normal hearing and matched degrees of sensorineural hearing loss. All subjects will be examined as well on educational background, physical and mental health and otologic history.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG009191-10
Application #
6328605
Study Section
Hearing Research Study Section (HAR)
Program Officer
Finkelstein, Judith A
Project Start
1991-03-15
Project End
2001-11-30
Budget Start
2001-01-15
Budget End
2001-11-30
Support Year
10
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$216,635
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland College Park
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
College Park
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
20742
Bieber, Rebecca E; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H; Freund, Maya S et al. (2018) Effects of listener age and native language on perception of accented and unaccented sentences. J Acoust Soc Am 144:3191
Bieber, Rebecca E; Gordon-Salant, Sandra (2017) Adaptation to novel foreign-accented speech and retention of benefit following training: Influence of aging and hearing loss. J Acoust Soc Am 141:2800
Cohen, Julie I; Gordon-Salant, Sandra (2017) The effect of visual distraction on auditory-visual speech perception by younger and older listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 141:EL470
Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H; Fitzgibbons, Peter J et al. (2017) Recognition of asynchronous auditory-visual speech by younger and older listeners: A preliminary study. J Acoust Soc Am 142:151
Gordon-Salant, Sandra; Yeni-Komshian, Grace H; Pickett, Erin J et al. (2016) Perception of contrastive bi-syllabic lexical stress in unaccented and accented words by younger and older listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 139:1132-48
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; Zion, Danielle J; Espy-Wilson, Carol (2014) Recognition of time-compressed speech does not predict recognition of natural fast-rate speech by older listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 136:EL268-74
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

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