Abstract
Visual enhancement in speech perception refers to the benefit obtained from seeing and hearing a talker, compared with listening alone. Previous studies comparing visual enhancement in younger (under age 25) and older (over age 65) adults have been confounded by age-related hearing loss. Therefore, the present study was designed to compare visual enhancement for consonants, words, and sentences in normal-hearing older and younger adults. All participants had clinically normal audiograms for octave frequencies from 250 Hz to 4 kHz. Consonant identification was tested using the Iowa Consonant Confusion Test. Word identification was measured using the Children’s Auditory–Visual Enhancement Test and sentence identification was measured using the Iowa Sentence Test. All testing was conducted in the presence of a multitalker background babble and baseline differences in auditory-only performance were minimized by setting signal-to-babble ratios individually to produce approximately 50% correct identification inthe auditory-only conditions. Visual enhancement, computed as the relative benefit obtained from adding visual speech information to the auditory signal, was significantly higher for younger than for older adults for consonants and words, but not for sentences. The results are discussed as supporting an age-related decline in intermodal sensory integration.
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