Abstract
AbstractPrevious literature has identified several cognitive abilities as predictors of individual differences in speech perception. Working memory was chief among them, but effects have also been found for processing speed. Most research has been conducted on speech in noise, but fast and unclear articulation also makes listening challenging, particularly for older listeners. As a first step toward specifying the cognitive mechanisms underlying spoken word recognition, we set up this study to determine which factors explain unique variation in word identification accuracy in fast speech, and the extent to which this was affected by further degradation of the speech signal. To that end, 105 older adults were tested on identification accuracy of fast words in unaltered and degraded conditions in which the speech stimuli were low-pass filtered. They were also tested on processing speed, memory, vocabulary knowledge, and hearing sensitivity. A structural equation analysis showed that only memory and hearing sensitivity explained unique variance in word recognition in both listening conditions. Working memory was more strongly associated with performance in the unfiltered than in the filtered condition. These results suggest that memory skills, rather than speed, facilitate the mapping of single words onto stored lexical representations, particularly in conditions of medium difficulty.
Highlights
It has long been known that people vary considerably in their ability to process spoken language, even if their objective hearing sensitivity is taken into account (Jerger, Jerger, & Pirozzolo, 1991; Middelweerd, Festen, & Plomp, 1990; van Rooij & Plomp, 1990, 1992)
As speech perception can already be challenging in the absence of noise if the speech itself is articulated fast and casually, we investigated if working memory capacity is involved in the recognition of fast speech
This study was set up to investigate the importance of hearing acuity, information processing speed, working memory, and vocabulary knowledge for older adults’ recognition of single words taken from fast speech
Summary
It has long been known that people vary considerably in their ability to process spoken language, even if their objective hearing sensitivity is taken into account (Jerger, Jerger, & Pirozzolo, 1991; Middelweerd, Festen, & Plomp, 1990; van Rooij & Plomp, 1990, 1992). Much research attention has been devoted to individual differences in younger and older adults’ ability to understand speech in noisy listening conditions, as evidenced by meta-analyses on the association between cognitive performance and speech-in-noise performance (e.g., Dryden, Allen, Henshaw, & Heinrich, 2017; Füllgrabe & Rosen, 2016) Both meta-analyses are in line with an earlier literature overview by Akeroyd (2008) in stressing that working memory is the cognitive capacity that has most often been related to the perception of speech masked by noise, for those with hearing impairment (Füllgrabe & Rosen, 2016). We can start to model which capacities are drawn on when
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