Effects of hearing loss and listening demand on turn-taking processes

Hearing loss is a common consequence of age, affecting over half of adults over 55. Numerous studies of conversation have demonstrated that people with hearing loss show delayed and more variable turn-taking than those without hearing loss, but the basis of such difference is unclear. I will present studies investigating two conversation mechanisms: response planning and prediction of turn-ends. In pilot data, we demonstrate that older adults with hearing loss self-report greater difficulty with these two mechanisms than older adults without hearing loss. In an experimental study combining verbal response planning with prediction of the speaker’s turn-end, we tested participants with: (1) normal hearing, (2) hearing loss listening at low effort, and (3) hearing loss listening at high effort but high intelligibility. All participants were able to generate predictions of the turn-end and prepare a verbal response, but the participants with hearing loss showed significantly delayed verbal responses. In both tasks, participants with hearing loss listening at low demand showed greater reliance on prediction than participants with hearing loss listening at high demand. These results suggest that delays in turn-taking in hearing loss may be explained by increased listening demand affecting resource availability.

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