Graduation Year
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Au.D.
Degree Granting Department
Audiology
Major Professor
Jennifer Lister, Ph.D., Chair
Committee Member
Richard A. Roberts, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Judith L. Reese, Ph.D.
Keywords
Temporal Resolution, Age, Frequency Region, Frequency Disparity
Abstract
Objective: Deficits in temporal resolution may be one element underlying the speech understanding difficulties experienced by older listeners in degraded acoustic environments. In real listening environments, important temporal cues are surrounded by stimuli of varying frequencies. This study was designed to assess temporal resolution as a function of frequency region, frequency-disparity, and age in listeners with normal hearing.
Design: Gap duration difference limens (GDDLs) were measured using leading and trailing markers that were fixed at the same frequency (fixed-frequency) or at frequencies one-half octave apart (frequency-disparate) for two groups of listeners with normal hearing: (1) 18-22 years and (2) 55-66 years. Two distinct frequency regions were represented, 500 Hz and 4000 Hz.
Results: The results indicated significant effects of age, frequency region, and frequency disparity on GDDLs. Poorer overall performance was observed for the older listeners, the lower frequency region, and the frequency-disparate condition.
Conclusions: Gap discrimination is negatively affected by advanced age, lower marker frequencies, and larger marker frequency disparities.
Scholar Commons Citation
Carlton, Alan, "Effects of age and stimulus frequency on gap discrimination" (2004). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/981
