Research article summary (published 30 Oct 1999):

Some limits on encoding visible speech and gestures using a dichotic shadowing task.

Full Abstract

Visible speech and gestures are two forms of available language information that can be used by listeners to help them understand the speaker's meaning. Previous research has shown that older adults are particularly dependent on visible speech, yet seem to profit less than younger adults from the speaker's gestures. To understand how visible speech and gestures are used when listening becomes difficult, the authors conducted an experiment with a dichotic shadowing task. The experiment examined how accurately participants could shadow the right- or left-ear input when instructed to attend selectively to a particular ear and whether performance benefited from visual input. The results indicate that older adults' shadowing performance was unaffected by visible speech and gestures. Younger adults did benefit by both visible speech and gestures. Thus, under extremely attention-demanding listening conditions, older adults are unable to use a compensatory mechanism for encoding visual language.

Author information

Author/s: Thompson, L A (LA); Guzman, F A (FA);

Affiliation: Psychology Dept., New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003, USA. thompson(-atsign-)crl.nmsu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences (J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1999-Nov; vol 54 (issue 6) : pp P347-9

Dates: Created 2000/02/04; Completed 2000/02/04; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 10625962, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Age Factors Aged Aging - physiology Dichotic Listening Tests - methods Female Gestures

Humans Light Male Memory - physiology Speech - physiology Speech Perception - physiology Visual Perception - physiology

Related articles

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

• Reliance on visible speech cues during multimodal language processing: individual and age differences. 29 Sep 2007
• Effects of sedative and non-sedative H1 antagonists on cognitive tasks: behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) examinations. 28 May 2007
• Age, gesture span, and dissociations among component subsystems of working memory. 30 May 2000
• Dichotic word recognition in young and older adults. 30 Mar 2006
• Age effects in identifying and localising dichotic stimuli: a corpus callosum deficit? 30 Aug 2004
• Neural correlates of bimodal speech and gesture comprehension. 30 Mar 2004
• Gestural recovery and the role of forward and reversed syllabic repetitions as stuttering inhibitors in adults. 8 Jun 2004
• Processing of changes in visual speech in the human auditory cortex. 29 Apr 2002
• Impaired listeners' recognition of speech presented dichotically through high- and low-pass filters. 30 Dec 1981

See 100+ related articles.

Related Article Map

Legend: - FREE Full text Article. - Abstract only. - Title only. More help.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.