Older adults show a more sustained pattern of effortful listening than young adults.

Listening to speech in adverse conditions can be challenging and effortful, especially for older adults. This study examined age-related differences effortful listening by recording changes the task-evoked pupil response (TEPR; a physiological marker of effort) both at level sentence processing over entire course task. A total 65 (32 young adults, 33 adults) participants performed recognition task presence competing talker, while moment-to-moment size were continuously monitored. Participants also administered Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale, questionnaire assessing daily life listening-related fatigue within four domains (social, cognitive, emotional, physical). Normalized TEPRs overall larger more steeply rising falling around peak versus adult group during processing. Additionally, mean stable group, consistent with sustained recruitment compensatory attentional resources maintain performance. No found terms fatigue; however, adults reported higher scores than social domain. Overall, this provides evidence qualitatively distinct patterns arousal between upregulation resource allocation listening. detailed understanding subjective mechanisms that underlie will ultimately help address complex communication needs aging listeners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).