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Uncovering the latent structure of hearing and speech perception across the lifespan
Abstract   Peer reviewed

Uncovering the latent structure of hearing and speech perception across the lifespan

Sita Carraturo, Sarah E. Colby, Samarium Knight, McKenna Revis and Bob McMurray
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.159(4_Supplement), pp.A264-A264
08/01/2026
DOI: 10.1121/10.0045656

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Abstract

Adverse listening conditions are common and contribute to hearing health and quality of life. Yet, it is unclear the extent to which there is a single, latent ability to cope with challenges, or if perceptual/cognitive mechanisms are specific to distinct types of adverse listening (noise, fast speech, etc.). An impediment to addressing this is that differences in challenging listening may simultaneously reflect age, hearing and cognition in addition to perceptual/cognitive differences. A latent-variable/structural-equation (SEM) approach may offer a unique way to disentangle this web. We thus apply an SEM to characterize the underlying structure of hearing and speech perception in a group of 210 adults ages 30–86. The model demonstrated good fit (CFI = 0.942, TLI = 0.921, RMSEA = 0.078). We found support for two latent auditory factors—detection (audiometric thresholds), and discrimination (gap detection; spectral and temporal resolution)—and one speech perception factor that captured covariance between quiet speech, speech in noise, and time-compressed speech measures. Thestructural model showed that detection (p = 0.033) and age (p = 0.006) significantly predicted speech perception, while discrimination and general cognition did not (p > 0.1). This approach demonstrates the utility of SEM for reducing the dimensionality of large datasets, and unpacking the causal links between aging, hearing, cognition and speech outcomes.

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