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ERIC Number: EJ1086117
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Dec
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Bidirectional Interference between Speech and Nonspeech Tasks in Younger, Middle-Aged, and Older Adults
Bailey, Dallin J.; Dromey, Christopher
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v58 n6 p1637-1653 Dec 2015
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine divided attention over a large age range by looking at the effects of 3 nonspeech tasks on concurrent speech motor performance. The nonspeech tasks were designed to facilitate measurement of bidirectional interference, allowing examination of their sensitivity to speech activity. A cross-sectional design was selected to explore possible changes in divided-attention effects associated with age. Method: Sixty healthy participants were separated into 3 groups of 20: younger (20s), middle-aged (40s), and older (60s) adults. Each participant completed a speech task (sentence repetitions) once in isolation and once concurrently with each of 3 nonspeech tasks: a semantic-decision linguistic task, a quantitative-comparison cognitive task, and a manual motor task. The nonspeech tasks were also performed in isolation. Results: Data from speech kinematics and nonspeech task performance indicated significant task-specific divided attention interference, with divided attention affecting speech and nonspeech measures in the linguistic and cognitive conditions and affecting speech measures in the manual motor condition. There was also a significant age effect for utterance duration. Conclusions: The results increase what is known about bidirectional interference between speech and other concurrent tasks as well as age effects on speech motor control.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 800-638-8255; Fax: 301-571-0457; e-mail: subscribe@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A