By: Kathryn Beilstein and Derian Cunningham B.S., Shraddha Shende PhD, and Raksha Mudar PhD
On April 12th, 2024, four members from the HearCog lab presented two posters at Illinois State University’s Research Symposium. Derian and Katie teamed up to present data on Memory Strategies Underlying Strategic Processing in Age Related Hearing Loss.
The following is a summary of our preliminary research findings that were presented at the ISU Research Symposium 20224. This is not a peer-reviewed or published article.
Age-related hearing loss, a gradual loss of hearing due to age, is a condition which commonly occurs in older adults, and emerging evidence suggests that age-related hearing loss is a risk factor for cognitive decline. However, the relationship between age-related hearing loss and specific cognitive functions is relatively unexplored. This research sought to look into the relationship between age-related hearing loss and cognition by looking at memory strategies used in a value-directed strategic processing task, which is a cognitive task. Value-directed strategic processing is when a person selectively picks and chooses which information they want to focus on (high-value information) and which information they want to ignore (low-value information). Different memory strategies used when assigning value to information were analyzed, and how those strategies might look different in individuals with age-related hearing loss vs. normal hearing was also investigated.
Participants included 16 older adults with age related hearing loss and 16 age matched normal hearing adults. An audiological test, including pure tone audiometry between 0.25 to 8 kHz was completed to determine the groups, with age related hearing loss being defined at pure tone average (PTA) being greater than 25 dB HL. A value directed strategic processing task was completed, which included stimuli of 200 monosyllabic, four-letter nouns, split into five lists of 40 different word stimuli. 20 words were assigned high-value (10 points), while 20 were assigned low-value (1 point). These words were differentiated by letter case, either fully capitalized (e.g., LAMB) or fully lower case (e.g., lamb). Participants were asked to recall as many words as possible at the end of each list, with a goal of obtaining the highest score possible. Following completion of the task, participants were asked if they used any strategies to try and remember the words.
A thematic analyses was conducted for the reported memory strategies. For each participant, themes of memory strategies used to perform the task were independently identified by both Derian and Katie. They both then corroborated their findings with each other. In cases of disagreement, they conferred with Dr. Shraddha Shende, who has expertise in thematic coding. The data was reexamined, and discussed until consensus was reached. After the identification of themes, frequency counts were obtained for each theme, multiple strategy use, and reports of no strategy use.
One of the themes consistently identified was “association” (point to table of strategy examples; and give an example), and participants reported a variety of strategies. A frequency count of different strategies which were grouped under association were also obtained.
It was found that older adults with and without hearing loss used a variety of memory strategies. These included: repetition, association, story synthesis, and attending to or inhibiting certain information. It was also found that the most common strategy among both groups of participants, with normal hearing and hearing loss, was associations, with grouping being the most common type of association strategy. For example, a participant reported they used “word correlation” when trying to memorize the words, and this was what was considered to be an association strategy through grouping. Other strategies noticed included story synthesis, repetition, and attending to/inhibiting information. A few participants described strategies that did not necessarily fit one of the theme categories and were labeled as “other”, while some participants reported not using any strategies.
Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that older adults, regardless of hearing status, employed similar memory strategies to perform this task that required value-directed strategic processing. Additionally, creating associations with the words aided in value-directed memory in older adults. However, these results are preliminary, given the very small sample size; and future studies larger samples are necessary to validate these results.
References:
Loughrey, D.G. (2022). Is age-related hearing loss a potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia? The Lancet, 3(12), e805-e806. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(22)00252-5
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2023, March 17). Age-Related Hearing Loss (Presbycusis). https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/age-related-hearing-loss
Shende, S.A., Lydon, E.A., Husain, F.T., & Mudar, R.A. (2022). Inhibitory control and value-directed strategic attention in persons with mild age-related hearing loss. Aging and Health Research, 2(2), Article 100074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahr.2022.100074