AUDITORY TEMPORAL PROCESSES, SPEECH PERCEPTION AND AGING

该项目提出了一个在言语感知和听觉的研究计划 心理物理学来检验这个假设， 老年听众的言语理解能力可以归因于 听觉时间处理的潜在问题 研究表明 老年听众在理解演讲时有特别的困难， 由于背景噪声的存在，或由于各种形式的 时间波形失真（例如，时间压缩，中断， 混响）。 听众的问题可能与 老年性听力损失，以及内部处理能力下降， 听觉系统的中心阶段。 该项目调查了 研究年龄的相对贡献的实验存在问题- 外周听觉灵敏度、中枢听觉 功能，以及使用言语和非言语的特定认知能力 刺激。 该项目包括四个调查阶段， 包括一系列语音识别实验和心理声学实验， 辨别任务。 第一阶段 （mos.（1-16）研究了 语音识别与四种类型的时间改变的语音和几个 用简单音调导出的时间敏感度的心理声学测量 刺激;阶段2. (mos 13-36）检查听觉中枢的影响 处理因素，通过改变刺激的复杂性， 言语和心理声学任务;第3阶段。 （mos. 32-48）评价 任务要求和选择性认知因素对听者序列的影响 言语句子和非言语序列模式的回忆;阶段4。 （mos. 49-60）应用判别分析统计技术， 制定青少年和老年人的时间处理能力概况 听众 对于调查的每个阶段， 年龄和听力损失对收听者性能的影响是通过测试年轻人来评估的。 和听力正常的老年受试者， 听力损失 参与该项目的受试者将 还应审查教育和语言背景、身体和 心理健康和耳科病史

The project proposes a program of studies in speech perception and auditory psychophysics to examine the hypothesis that many of the difficulties in speech understanding among elderly listeners can be attributed to underlying problems in auditory temporal processing. Research indicates that elderly listeners have particular difficulty understanding speech that is degraded by the presence of background noise, or by various forms of temporal waveform distortion (e.g., time compression, interruption, reverberation). The listeners' problems may be related to the effects of presbycusic hearing loss, as well as diminished processing capacity within central stages of the auditory system. The project investigates the problem with experiments that examine the relative contributions of age- related changes in peripheral hearing sensitivity, central auditory function, and selected cognitive abilities using speech and non-speech stimuli. The project comprises four stages of investigation, each consisting of a series of speech recognition experiments and psychoacoustic discrimination tasks. Stage 1. (mos. 1-16) examines relations between speech recognition with four types of temporally-altered speech and several psychoacoustic measures of temporal sensitivity derived with simple tonal stimuli; Stage 2. (mos 13-36) examines the influence of auditory central processing factors by varying the complexity of stimuli used in both the speech and psychoacoustic tasks; Stage 3. (mos. 32-48) evaluates the effects of task demands and selected cognitive factors on listeners' serial recall of speech sentences and non-speech sequential patterns; Stage 4. (mos. 49-60) applies discriminant analysis statistical techniques to formulate profiles of temporal processing abilities of young and elderly listeners. For each stage of the investigation, the independent effects of age and hearing loss on listener performance are evaluated by testing young and elderly subjects with normal hearing and matched degrees of sensorineural hearing loss. Subjects participating in the project will also be examined on educational and language background, physical and mental health, and otologic history.