Limited learning and adaptation in disfluency processing among older adults

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience of Aging
• Auditory Perception

Background:

• Real-time language processing relies on adapting to diverse auditory cues.
• Younger adults effectively adapt in complex multitalker settings.
• Adaptation abilities in older adults, particularly with novel auditory statistics, require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether older adults can adapt to talker-specific patterns using paralinguistic cues like disfluency.
• To compare adaptation in single-talker versus multitalker settings in older adults.
• To determine if older adults can learn and apply novel statistics specific to each talker.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with older adults (N=100 total).
• Participants listened to instructions from two talkers: one predictive and one unpredictable regarding disfluency.
• Eye movements were tracked to measure visual attention and adaptation to talker-specific patterns.

Main Results:

• Older adults showed partner-specific adaptation in a single-talker setting (Experiment 1).
• This adaptation was not observed in a more complex multitalker setting (Experiment 2).
• Results indicate a diminished ability to learn and apply novel, partner-specific statistics in challenging environments.

Conclusions:

• Older adults can adapt to simpler, single-talker scenarios using predictive cues.
• Complex multitalker settings impede older adults' ability to learn and utilize talker-specific auditory statistics.
• Potential contributing factors include slower processing speed and reduced cognitive flexibility in older adults.