Centre for Policy on Ageing



One voice too many — adult age differences in language processing with different types of distracting sounds
Author(s)	Patricia A Tun, Arthur Wingfield
Journal title	The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 54B, no 5, September 1999
Pages	pp P317-327
Keywords	Listening ; Cognitive processes ; Mental speed ; Age groups [elderly] ; Young adults [20-25] ; United States of America.
Annotation	An experiment is reported which investigated factors that might contribute to age differences in the ability to process spoken language under conditions of competition from various types of background noise. Age differences in recall of spoken sentences were shown to depend on the type of background noise as well as its intensity. Increased intensity levels of just one competing speaker produced differentially greater impairment in older adults than in young adults. Analyses showed that listening performance was predicted not only by individual differences in hearing ability, but also by speed of processing, which underscores the combined role of age-related auditory and cognitive changes in processing spoken language. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-991220221 A
Classmark	UOA: DA: DG: BB: SD6: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.