Cognitive resources related to speech recognition with a competing talker in young and older listeners.

Speech recognition in a multi-talker situation poses high demands on attentional and other central resources. This study examines the relationship between age, cognition and speech recognition in tasks that require selective or divided attention in a multi-talker setting. Two groups of normal-hearing adults (one younger and one older group) were asked to repeat utterances from either one or two concurrent speakers. Cognitive abilities were then inspected by neuropsychological tests. Speech recognition scores approached its ceiling and did not significantly differ between age groups for tasks that demanded selective attention. However, when divided attention was required, performance in older listeners was reduced as compared to the younger group. When selective attention was required, speech recognition was strongly related to working memory skills, as determined by a regression model. In comparison, speech recognition for tests requiring divided attention could be more strongly determined by neuropsychological probes of fluid intelligence. The findings of this study indicate that - apart from hearing impairment - cognitive aspects account for the typical difficulties of older listeners in a multi-speaker setting. Our results are discussed in the context of evidence showing that frontal lobe functions in terms of working memory and fluid intelligence generally decline with age.

[Examination of speech perception and cognitive functioning in the elderly]. / Untersuchungen zum Sprachverstehen und zu kognitiven Fähigkeiten im Alter.

BACKGROUND: Elderly persons frequently complain about problems with speech understanding especially in complex acoustic situations. Besides hearing impairment the decline of cognitive functions might explain these problems. METHODS: In 12 normal hearing young subjects and 14 elderly listeners with extraordinarily good hearing speech perception was measured in a broad range of different acoustic situations. Cognitive functioning was evaluated with different neuropsychological tests. RESULTS: Despite comparable pure tone thresholds the elderly listeners revealed worse speech discrimination than the young subjects in almost all test situations. Largest differences were found in situations with fluctuating maskers and competing talkers. Most of the speech perception results revealed significant correlations with the outcome from a neuropsychological test addressing declarative verbal memory. CONCLUSIONS: In complex listening situations elderly persons reveal worse speech understanding than younger subjects. Differences in speech perception can partly be attributed to cognitive abilities. In particular, working memory seems to be an important factor.

[Development of a German version of the Functioning After Pediatric Cochlear Implantation (FAPCI) questionnaire]. / Entwicklung einer deutschsprachigen Version des Fragebogens Functioning After Pediatric Cochlear Implantation (FAPCI).

BACKGROUND: The Functioning After Pediatric Cochlear Implantation (FAPCI) instrument was recently developed to determine the communicative performance of 2-5-year-old prelingually deafened, cochlear-implanted children. Because of its high reliability and validity, as well as possible additional information compared with existing questionnaires, the 23-item parent-proxy questionnaire was translated from U.S. English to German prior to validation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Initially, the German inventory was qualitatively developed by experts in audiology and speech pathology in collaboration with a professional American translator. Based on a sample of parents' responses, the outcome was quantitatively validated using psychometric methods (Cronbach's alpha, principal components analysis). Finally, the nomological validity was verified by correlating the overall FAPCI value with an external criterion (i.e., hearing age). RESULTS: For almost all age groups, Cronbach's alpha exceeded the minimum value of the original study (0.86). Principal components analysis revealed a two-factor solution (speech perception/production). The fitting of a nonparametric regression line to the data points showed that the total FAPCI score was positively associated with the time of implant use. CONCLUSION: The results show concordance between the German and the English versions of the FAPCI. The two instruments agree in reliability as well as in validity. The suitability of the German version in the clinical and therapeutic routine needs to be confirmed in further investigations.