Аннотация:A key issue in research on speech perception in the elderly is whether the difficulties in understanding speech are caused by auditive and/or cognitive factors. A test battery was developed comprising auditive (sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and temporal resolution), cognitive (memory performance, processing speed, and intellectual abilities), and speech perception tests (at the phoneme, spondee, and sentence level). This test battery was administered to 72 elderly subjects (aged 60 to 93 years). The results show that the deterioration of speech perception in the elderly consists of two statistically independent components: (a) a larger component, mainly representing the progressive high-frequency hearing loss with age and (b) a smaller component, mainly representing a general performance decrement due to reduced mental efficiency (indicated by reduction of processing speed and a diminished memory capacity). Although both components are correlated with age, it was found that the balance between auditive and cognitive contributions to speech perception performance did not change with age. [Work supported by Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO).]
