Speech Perception in Complex Acoustic Environments: Developmental Effects

Purpose: The ability to hear and understand speech in complex acoustic environments follows a prolonged time course of development. The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the literature describing age effects in susceptibility to auditory masking in the context of speech recognition, including a summary of findings related to the maturation of processes thought to facilitate segregation of target from competing speech. Method: Data from published and ongoing studies are discussed, with a focus on synthesizing results from studies that address age-related changes in the ability to perceive speech in the presence of a small number of competing talkers. Conclusions: This review provides a summary of the current state of knowledge that is valuable for researchers and clinicians. It highlights the importance of considering listener factors, such as age and hearing status, as well as stimulus factors, such as masker type, when interpreting masked speech recognition data.