ABSTRACT
The common complaints of elderly persons, that speech understanding is often difficult
when there is background competition, have been studied for half a century. Putative
explanatory factors include loss in audibility, cognitive decline, deficits in frequency
resolution and rapid temporal processing, and related problems unique to auditory
processing. Experimental approaches fall into two broad categories: (1) studies focusing
on group comparisons, and (2) studies focusing on the performance of individuals.
Group studies fall into five broad classifications: (1) comparison of an elderly group
with one or more young adult groups, (2) cross-sectional studies of different cohorts
across a range of ages, (3) longitudinal studies of the same cohort across a range
of ages, (4) factor analytic studies, and (5) prediction from a theoretical framework.
Studies focusing on the performance of individual elderly persons are motivated by
the substantial variability observed among elderly persons and the sense that they
should not be treated as a homogeneous group. This article provides one or more examples
of experimental outcomes in each type of study and attempts a synthesis of their findings.
KEYWORDS
Presbyacusis - aging - hearing loss - cognitive decline - auditory processing
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James Jerger
2612 E. Prairie Creek Dr.
Richardson, TX 75080
Email: jjerger@utdallas.edu
