Recognising foreign-accented speech of varying intelligibility and linguistic complexity: insights from older listeners with or without hearing loss

Abstract

Objective The goal of this study was to assess recognition of foreign-accented speech of varying intelligibility and linguistic complexity in older adults. It is important to understand the factors that influence the recognition of this commonly encountered type of speech, in a population that remains understudied in this regard. Design A repeated measures design was used. Listeners repeated back linguistically simple and complex sentences heard in noise. The sentences were produced by three talkers of varying intelligibility: one native American English, one foreign-accented talker of high intelligibility and one foreign-accented talker of low intelligibility. Percentage word recognition in sentences was measured. Study sample Twenty-five older listeners with a range of hearing thresholds participated. Results We found a robust interaction between talker intelligibility and linguistic complexity. Recognition accuracy was higher for simple versus complex sentences, but only for the native and high intelligibility foreign-accented talkers. This pattern was present after effects of working memory capacity and hearing acuity were taken into consideration. Conclusion Older listeners exhibit qualitatively different speech processing strategies for low versus high intelligibility foreign-accented talkers. Differences in recognition accuracy for words presented in simple versus in complex sentence contexts only emerged for speech over a threshold of intelligibility.