Skip to content
The American Academy of Audiology
  • Practice Resources
    • Practice Guidelines and Standards
    • Reimbursement
    • Coding
    • Compliance
    • Public Awareness
    • State Medicaid
    • Medicare FAQs
    • COVID-19 Resources
  • Education and Events
    • Event Calendar
    • AAA Annual Conference
    • Academy Research Conference (ARC)
    • Continuing Education
    • eAudiology Online Learning
    • Research Grants and Scholarships
  • News and Publications
    • Audiology Today
    • Newsroom
    • Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
    • Advertising
    • Audiology Solutions Network
    • Online Store
  • Careers
    • Career Center
    • Certification
    • Become an Audiologist
    • Doctoral Programs in Audiology
    • Recruiting
    • Resources for New Audiologists
  • Advocacy
    • Legislative and Regulatory Activities
      • State Affairs
      • Federal Affairs
    • Legislative Action Center
    • Government Relations News
  • About the Academy
    • Contact Us
    • Academy Membership
      • Benefits
      • Ethics
      • Member Directory
      • Membership Renewals
    • Leadership
    • Committees and Task Forces
    • Get Involved
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Honors and Awards
    • Sponsorships and Corporate Partners
    • Press and Media Information
  • Audiology Community
  • Consumers
    • What Is an Audiologist
    • Hearing and Balance Symptoms and Conditions
    • Managing Hearing Loss
    • Seniors and Hearing Loss
    • Children and Hearing Loss
FacebookTwitterLinkedinYoutubeInstagram
  • Audiology Community
  • Students
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • Renew
The American Academy of Audiology
Member Login
  • Practice Resources
    • Practice Guidelines and Standards
    • Reimbursement
    • Coding
    • Compliance
    • Public Awareness
    • State Medicaid
    • Medicare FAQs
    • COVID-19 Resources
  • Education and Events
    • Event Calendar
    • AAA Annual Conference
    • Academy Research Conference (ARC)
    • Continuing Education
    • eAudiology Online Learning
    • Research Grants and Scholarships
  • News and Publications
    • Audiology Today
    • Newsroom
    • Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
    • Advertising
    • Audiology Solutions Network
    • Online Store
  • Careers
    • Career Center
    • Certification
    • Become an Audiologist
    • Doctoral Programs in Audiology
    • Recruiting
    • Resources for New Audiologists
  • Advocacy
    • Legislative and Regulatory Activities
      • State Affairs
      • Federal Affairs
    • Legislative Action Center
    • Government Relations News
  • About the Academy
    • Contact Us
    • Academy Membership
      • Benefits
      • Ethics
      • Member Directory
      • Membership Renewals
    • Leadership
    • Committees and Task Forces
    • Get Involved
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Honors and Awards
    • Sponsorships and Corporate Partners
    • Press and Media Information
  • Audiology Community
  • Consumers
    • What Is an Audiologist
    • Hearing and Balance Symptoms and Conditions
    • Managing Hearing Loss
    • Seniors and Hearing Loss
    • Children and Hearing Loss
July 2, 2020

Cognitive-Processing Issues in Older Patients with ARHL

  • In the News

When serving our older patients, cognitive screenings may provide valuable insight into the listening and communication difficulties in complex environments. However, a recent study by Dr. Christian Füllgrabe (2020) suggests that the results of cognitive screenings may be impacted by the presence of age-related hearing loss (ARHL).

In his study, groups of young participants with normal-hearing sensitivity and no cognitive impairments were split into groups who listened to filtered and unfiltered stimuli to simulate ARHL. The group with the simulated ARHL had significantly poorer cognitive-test performance when compared to the group who listened to unfiltered stimuli.

Füllgrabe related the findings to work by Rabbitt (1968, 1991) who proposed the effortfulness hypothesis, which suggests that in challenging listening situations (i.e., hearing loss or background noise), speech recognition requires more effort. The increased effort limits the remaining cognitive resources and working memory necessary for speech recognition.

As a result, some cognitive screeners may overestimate the cognitive-processing issues in our older patients with ARHL. Future research will need to be conducted on cognitive screeners to determine how the impact of ARHL may be removed, this allowing for an accurate picture of a patient’s cognitive abilities.

References

Füllgrabe C. (2020) On the possible overestimation of cognitive decline: The impact of age-related hearing loss on cognitive-test performance. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14, 454.

Rabbitt P. (1991) Mild hearing loss can cause apparent memory failures which increase with age and reduce with IQ. Acta Oto Laryngol. 111:167–176. doi: 10.3109/00016489109127274

Rabbitt PM A. (1968) Channel-capacity, intelligibility, and immediate memory. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 20:241–248. doi: 10.1080/14640746808400158

Share this

Recent Posts

  • HHS and FTC Announce Expansion of Operations to Tackle Challenges in Cybersecurity, Technology, and Privacy
  • HHS Releases Health-Care Cybersecurity Guide
  • The American Academy of Audiology Releases Position Statement on Early Identification of Cytomegalovirus in Newborns

Related Posts

What Exactly Are Binaural Beats?
In the News

What Exactly Are Binaural Beats?

When you present one tone to one ear and a second to the other ear, your brain perceives an additional tone. This is the essence of binaural beats. The concept of two tones creating a third tone should ring familiar with audiologists. However, our clinical use typically is unilateral when assessing distortion product otoacoustic emissions….

Read More
Does Your Dog Listen to You?
In the News

Does Your Dog Listen to You?

Dogs have a reputation for being human’s best friend. If you have ever had one as a pet, you know that they can be a loyal companion. Maybe even a trusted confidante?   You may have tried training your dog to follow basic commands like “sit” and “stay.” Have you ever noticed though that some…

Read More
Who’s Afraid of Snakes?
In the News

Who’s Afraid of Snakes?

Research shows that approximately half of the population feel “anxious” about snakes, and a whopping three percent of the population meet the diagnostic criteria for snake phobia (Polak et al., 2016). Is it their skin? Is it that they have no legs and thus slither? Is it the tongue? Is it their ears? Wait—do snakes…

Read More
wave-mark

Join the Academy

Academy members receive many benefits for professional development, practice management, and community development.

Become a Member
COMM22-Academy_Website_Graphics-Retina-Celebrating_35_Years (W)-min

American Academy of Audiology
11480 Commerce Park Drive
Suite 220
Reston, VA 20191

Tel: 703-790-8466
Fax: 703-790-8631

  • Practice Resources
    • Practice Guidelines and Standards
    • Reimbursement
    • Coding
    • Compliance
    • Public Awareness
    • State Medicaid
    • Medicare FAQs
    • COVID-19 Resources
  • Education and Events
    • Event Calendar
    • AAA Annual Conference
    • Academy Research Conference (ARC)
    • Continuing Education
    • eAudiology Online Learning
    • Research Grants and Scholarships
  • News and Publications
    • Audiology Today
    • Newsroom
    • Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
    • Advertising
    • Audiology Solutions Network
    • Online Store
  • Careers
    • Career Center
    • Certification
    • Become an Audiologist
    • Doctoral Programs in Audiology
    • Recruiting
    • Resources for New Audiologists
  • Advocacy
    • Legislative and Regulatory Activities
      • State Affairs
      • Federal Affairs
    • Legislative Action Center
    • Government Relations News
  • About the Academy
    • Contact Us
    • Academy Membership
      • Benefits
      • Ethics
      • Member Directory
      • Membership Renewals
    • Leadership
    • Committees and Task Forces
    • Get Involved
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Honors and Awards
    • Sponsorships and Corporate Partners
    • Press and Media Information
  • Audiology Community
  • Consumers
    • What Is an Audiologist
    • Hearing and Balance Symptoms and Conditions
    • Managing Hearing Loss
    • Seniors and Hearing Loss
    • Children and Hearing Loss
  • Audiology Community
  • Students
  • Donate
  • Get Involved
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Antitrust Policy and Guidelines
  • Terms of Use Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Sitemap

© Copyright 2023 American Academy of Audiology

Website by Yoko Co

Scroll To Top