An Investigation of Non-Auditory Lexical Language Skills in Relation to Hearing Ability and Second Language Use in Older Adults

This study explored how age-related hearing loss and second language use relate to non-auditory lexical language abilities in 74 older adults (mean age 63; range 50–73). Participants completed a cognitive task (backwards digit span) and two lexical tasks: a verbal fluency task, which has a stronger cognitive component, and a vocabulary task, which has a lesser cognitive component. Our findings suggest that fundamental language skills are distinct from perceptual difficulties – at least in a lexical task with a lesser cognitive component. In the lexical task with a stronger cognitive component, we found evidence for a complex relation between age-related hearing loss and the frequency of second language use.