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Impacts of age on memory for auditory intensity
Frederick J Gallun1, Anna C Diedesch, Robertson Beasley
1VA RR&D National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, Portland VA Medical Center, 3710 SW US Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. Frederick.Gallun@va.gov
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|August 17, 2012
Summary
Older adults show hearing impairments in complex auditory sequences, particularly with memory-based tasks. Age did not affect basic intensity discrimination but impacted performance on sequence identification and post-trial cue tasks.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Gerontology
Background:
- Aging is associated with sensory declines, including hearing.
- Auditory processing in older adults may be compromised in challenging listening conditions.
- Intensity discrimination is a fundamental auditory skill.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in intensity judgments of auditory signals.
- To examine how auditory memory and attention influence performance in older listeners.
- To determine if age affects intensity discrimination of target tones within sequences.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with participants aged 19-74 years.
- Listeners performed intensity judgments on narrowband noise bursts.
- Tasks included identifying fixed sequences and using pre/post-trial cues.
Main Results:
- Intensity discrimination thresholds for single bursts were unaffected by age.
- Accuracy decreased with age when identifying sequences or using post-trial cues.
- No significant age effects were found when using pre-trial cues.
Conclusions:
- Auditory memory capacity and selective attention may decline with age.
- Older adults are more susceptible to age-related auditory processing deficits in complex sequences.
- Age-related auditory impairments are task-dependent, particularly affecting memory-intensive listening situations.
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