The Effects of Speaking Rate and Stimulus Variability on Spoken Word Recognition by Young and Elderly Listeners

Author: Mitchell S. Sommers, Larry Humes and David B. Pisoni

Abstract:
These studies investigated the effects of increased speaking rate and greater speaking-rate variability on spoken-word recognition in older and younger listeners. For younger subjects, neither increased speaking rate nor greater rate variability produced significant changes in perceptual identification scores. Older listeners, in contrast, exhibited significantly poorer identification scores for fast, compared to medium or slow speaking rates. In addition, trial-to-trial variations in speaking rate produced a significant decrease in identification scores for elderly subjects listening to fast-rate item. These findings suggest that age-related declines in perceptual normalization and temporal processing may partially explain the poorer speech perception abilities of older listeners.