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Sketchpad Series

The Impact of Slow Speech Rate, Increased Target Word Intensity, Contextual Cues on Speech Processing and Listening Effort in Older Adults

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Hyungi Chun¹ (hchun@gradcenter.cuny.edu); ¹The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Many older listeners with normal hearing or mild hearing loss struggle with speech perception in background noise despite little difficulty in quiet conditions. This challenge stems from a decline in temporal processing, a key mechanism for everyday speech processing. Clear speech, characterized by a slower speech rate and increased intensity of target words, has been suggested to improve perception. This study also explored the role of contextual cues in facilitating predictive processing during challenging listening conditions. Thirteen younger adults and 19 older adults with normal hearing or hearing loss participated. Using a dual-task paradigm, participants listened to conversations and pressed buttons in response to target words while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Afterward, participants rated listening effort using a subjective questionnaire. Correlation analyses examined the relationship between age and hearing sensitivity in both groups and in older adults alone. Results showed that increasing the intensity of target words benefited older adults with hearing loss, particularly for low-expectancy words. However, a slow speech rate did not provide the same benefit and increased listening effort in older adults, likely due to the need for additional cognitive resources to process unexpected words. These findings were supported by ERP results, which showed increased N400 and late positivity in younger adults, but reduced N400 and late positivity in older adults with hearing loss. This present study provides a positive opportunity to obtain insights into effective strategies for improving speech perception in older adults with hearing loss.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Development & aging