Dramatic declines in perception of time-compressed speech and other challenging listening conditions across the lifespan: Effects of age, general cognition, and hearing

McKenna Revis; Sarah E. Colby; Samarium Knight; Sita Carraturo; Bob McMurray

doi:10.1121/10.0045853

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Dramatic declines in perception of time-compressed speech and other challenging listening conditions across the lifespan: Effects of age, general cognition, and hearing

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Dramatic declines in perception of time-compressed speech and other challenging listening conditions across the lifespan: Effects of age, general cognition, and hearing

McKenna Revis, Sarah E. Colby, Samarium Knight, Sita Carraturo and Bob McMurray

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.159(4_Supplement), pp.A318-A318

08/01/2026

DOI: 10.1121/10.0045853

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Abstract

Many older adults report social isolation. This may derive from hearing and cognitive declines, but the contribution of language processing is unclear. A critical language skill is the ability to cope with challenging listening conditions like noise, quiet speech, or time-compressed speech. We report results from an ongoing study of over 200 typically hearing adults aged 30–90. To test the ability to perceive time-compressed speech, participants heard sentences compressed to 30% of their duration and repeated them aloud. This was part of a larger battery testing cognition, language, speech perception, and patient-reported outcomes. We first asked if time-compressed speech perception declines with age. Age alone accounted for 60.2% of the variance in time-compressed speech (N = 173, p < 0.0001). For participants with hearing (PTA) and cognitive scores (N = 124), these factors accounted for 46% of the variance, and only hearing was significant (p < 0.0001). However, age predicted an additional 16.1% of the variance (p < 0.0001). Thus, age-related declines in time-compressed speech perception are not wholly the result of hearing and cognitive decline. Time-compressedspeech performance was also correlated with speech reception threshold (r = 0.570) and speech in noise (0.504), even after accounting for age and hearing (p = 0.0089, N = 117). This suggests a core ability to recognize challenging speech.

Details

Title: Subtitle: Dramatic declines in perception of time-compressed speech and other challenging listening conditions across the lifespan: Effects of age, general cognition, and hearing
Creators: McKenna Revis - University of Iowa
Sarah E. Colby - University of Iowa
Samarium Knight - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Sita Carraturo - University of Iowa
Bob McMurray - University of Iowa
Resource Type: Abstract
Publication Details: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.159(4_Supplement), pp.A318-A318
DOI: 10.1121/10.0045853
ISSN: 1520-8524
eISSN: 1520-8524
Language: English
Date published: 08/01/2026
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures ; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9985220943802771

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