Age differences in the processing of dynamic acoustic information

Abstract

The present study examines possible age‐related differences in the use of dynamic acoustic information (in the form of formant transitions) to identify CVC words. Sixty‐two high‐frequency monosyllabic English words were recorded that began or ended in oral or nasal stops. From these words, two sets of tokens were created: an unmodified CVC token representing the whole word and a silent‐center version in which approximately 70% of the medial vowel was replaced by silence. Two sets of listeners were required to identify these words in first the silent‐center condition and then the whole‐word condition. The listeners included 17 college sophomores or juniors and 22 older subjects aged 55–75. All listeners were screened for normal auditory sensitivity. Results demonstrated both age groups' identifications were somewhat better in the whole‐word condition than in the silent‐center condition. However, the mean correct consonant and vowel identifications of the older listener group was approximately 10% less than that for the younger listeners in the silent‐center condition. No age difference was obtained in the whole‐word condition. These data support the hypothesis that older listeners have greater difficulty than younger listeners in processing dynamic acoustic information in the perception of speech. [Supported by NIA Grant ♯1 R01 AG08353‐01.]