Taking the Extra Listening Mile: Processing Spoken Semantic Context Is More Effortful for Older Than Young Adults

Tami Harel-Arbeli, Hagit Shaposhnik, Yuval Palgi, Boaz M. Ben-David

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: Older adults use semantic context to generate predictions in speech processing, compensating for aging-related sensory and cognitive changes. This study aimed to gauge aging-related changes in effort exertion related to context use. Design: The study revisited data from Harel-Arbeli et al. (2023) that used a “visual-world” eye-tracking paradigm. Data on efficiency of context use (response latency and the probability to gaze at the target before hearing it) and effort exertion (pupil dilation) were extracted from a subset of 14 young adults (21 to 27 years old) and 13 older adults (65 to 79 years old). Results: Both age groups showed a similar pattern of context benefits for response latency and target word predictions, however only the older adults group showed overall increased pupil dilation when listening to context sentences. Conclusions: Older adults’ efficient use of spoken semantic context appears to come at a cost of increased effort exertion.

Original languageEnglish
Article number10.1097/AUD.0000000000001582
JournalEar and Hearing
Early online date2 Sep 2024
DOIs
StateE-pub ahead of print - 2 Sep 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Context
  • Eye-tracking
  • Pupillometry
  • Speech perception

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Otorhinolaryngology
  • Speech and Hearing

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