Word Identification With Temporally Interleaved Competing Sounds by Younger and Older Adult Listeners.
Karen S Helfer, Sarah F Poissant, Gabrielle R Merchant
PMID 31567564WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults missed more target words when other words were inserted between them.
Their trouble was linked to mental flexibility, not high-frequency hearing loss or unrelated sounds.
Key findings
01Older adults identified fewer target words than younger adults when other words were inserted between them, scoring 63% versus 71% correct in random-order trials.
02Noise and environmental sounds inserted between target words had minimal effects for both groups.
03Better performance on this task was related to higher mental flexibility scores, not to high-frequency hearing loss.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 16 younger and 16 older adults were studied, and one from each group was excluded from analysis. Participants were healthy native English speakers without ear or neurologic disorders, and older adults had to score at least 26 on the Mini-Mental State Examination, so people with more severe hearing loss, cognitive decline, or other conditions were not included. Older participants' high-frequency hearing loss was limited to no greater than 60 dB HL in each ear. The task was artificial, with words inserted between target words, and does not represent real-world communication. The study tested performance on a laboratory word task, not patient outcomes or therapy effects. Environmental sound samples may not have been compelling enough to capture attention.
Declared interests
The supplied metadata lists NIH extramural research support. No conflicts-of-interest statement is included in the article text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hearing loss alone explains older adults' difficulty with competing words. High-frequency hearing loss was not related to performance on the interleaved word task, while mental flexibility was.