ASHAWire
Advanced search
Skip main navigation
Close Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
No AccessAmerican Journal of AudiologyResearch Forum1 Jun 2015

Listening Comprehension in Middle-Aged Adults

    https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_AJA-14-0060

    Abstract

    Purpose

    The purpose of this summary is to examine changes in listening comprehension across the adult lifespan and to identify factors associated with individual differences in listening comprehension.

    Method

    In this article, the author reports on both cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in listening comprehension.

    Conclusions

    Despite significant declines in both sensory and cognitive abilities, listening comprehension remains relatively unchanged in middle-aged listeners (between the ages of 40 and 60 years) compared with young listeners. These results are discussed with respect to possible compensatory factors that maintain listening comprehension despite impaired hearing and reduced cognitive capacities.

    References

    • Brown, J. I., Carlsen, G. R., & Carstens, L. (1995). Brown–Carlsen–Carstens Listening Comprehension Test. New York, NY: Harcourt.
      Google Scholar
    • Ching, T. Y. C., Dillon, H., & Byrne, D. (1998). Speech recognition of hearing-impaired listeners: Predictions from audibility and the limited role of high-frequency amplification.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 103, 1128–1140.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Committee on Hearing and Bioacoustics (CHABA), Working Group on Speech Understanding and Aging. (1988). Speech understanding and aging.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83, 859–895.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Dixon, R. A., Simon, E. W., Nowak, C. A., & Hultsch, D. F. (1982). Text recall in adulthood as a function of level of information, input modality, and delay interval.Journal of Gerontology, 37, 358–364.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Greenwood, P. M., Espeseth, T., Lin, M. K., Reinvang, I., & Parasuraman, R. (2014). Longitudinal change in working memory as a function of APOE genotype in midlife and old age.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 55, 268–277.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Hornsby, B. W., & Ricketts, T. A. (2006). The effects of hearing loss on the contribution of high- and low-frequency speech information to speech understanding. II. Sloping hearing loss.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119, 1752–1763.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Hutchinson, K. M. (1989). Influence of sentence context on speech perception in young and older adults.Journal of Gerontology, 44, 36–44.
      CrossrefGoogle Scholar
    • Kaufman, A. S., & Horn, J. L. (1996). Age changes on tests of fluid and crystallized ability for women and men on the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT) at ages 17–94 years.Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 11, 97–121.
      MedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Kaufman, A. S., & Kaufman, N. L. (1993). Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Pearson.
      Google Scholar
    • Morrell, C. H., Gordon-Salant, S., Pearson, J. D., Brant, L. J., & Fozard, J. L. (1996). Age- and gender-specific reference ranges for hearing level and longitudinal changes in hearing level.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 100, 1949–1967.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Nittrouer, S., & Boothroyd, A. (1990). Context effects in phoneme and word recognition by young children and older adults.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 87, 2705–2715.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Schneider, B. A., Daneman, M., Murphy, D. R., & See, S. K. (2000). Listening to discourse in distracting settings: The effects of aging.Psychology and Aging, 15, 110–125.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Sommers, M. S., & Danielson, S. M. (1999). Inhibitory processes and spoken word recognition in young and older adults: The interaction of lexical competition and semantic context.Psychology and Aging, 14, 458–472.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Sommers, M. S., Hale, S., Myerson, J., Rose, N., Tye-Murray, N., & Spehar, B. (2011). Listening comprehension across the adult lifespan.Ear and Hearing, 32, 775–781.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Studebaker, G. A., Pavlovic, C. V., & Sherbecoe, R. L. (1987). A frequency importance function for continuous discourse.The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 81, 1130–1138.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar
    • Tye-Murray, N., Sommers, M., Spehar, B., Myerson, J., Hale, S., & Rose, N. S. (2008). Auditory–visual discourse comprehension by older and young adults in favorable and unfavorable conditions.International Journal of Audiology, 47(Suppl. 2),S31–S37.
      CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar

    Additional Resources