Abstract
The influence of age and hearing loss was investigated with respect to measures of sensory (d′) and decision (Beta) processes in an auditory signal detection task. Beta values obtained from a yes/no signal detection paradigm were used to estimate subject biases. Subjects were 12 normal hearing and 12 moderately hearing‐impaired adults of two age groups (18–24 years and 65–76 years). The elderly subjects set more conservative criteria in reporting the presence or absence of faint auditory stimuli (higher Beta) than the younger ones regardless of hearing acuity. These higher criterion values suggest that the magnitude of hearing loss in the older population may be overestimated due to greater cautiousness on the part of the elderly. In the younger age group, more conservative responses were obtained for the normal hearing subjects than for the hearing impaired.
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