Fig 1.
Hearing thresholds at each frequency (500 Hz – 8000 Hz) and ear for both younger and older adult groups.
The circle and triangle symbols represent the means. Error bars represent ±1 SE.
Table 1.
Participant group demographics and baseline assessment outcome measures.
Fig 2.
DriverLab.
Fig 3.
Sample scenes from the Rural section of the drive (left) and the City section of the drive (right).
Fig 4.
Breakdown of the five conditions completed by all participants during the experimental session.
Fig 5.
Listening task performance percent correct word recognition accuracy scores for each Age Group, Listening Difficulty, and Task Type condition.
Each violin plot represents the frequency of the data at each point on the y-axis. The center dot represents the mean. Error bars represent ±1 SE. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
Fig 6.
Correlations between word recognition accuracy scores in the six different experimental conditions (columns) and baseline measures (rows).
To ensure consistency, PTA in the better ear, Trail Making scores, UFOV Processing Speed, Divided Attention, and Selective Attention sub-tests scores were reverse coded so that higher values indicated better performance across all measures. A positive r value indicates a positive relationship (blue) and a negative r value indicates a negative relationship (red). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
Fig 7.
SDLP in meters, for each Age Group, Task Type, and Driving Difficulty condition.
Each violin plot represents the frequency of the data at each point on the y-axis. The center dot represents the mean. Error bars represent ±1 SE. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
Fig 8.
Correlations between driving performance SDLP in the six different experimental conditions (columns) and baseline measures (rows).
To ensure consistency, PTA in the better ear, Trail Making scores, UFOV Processing Speed, Divided Attention, and Selective Attention sub-tests scores were reverse coded so that higher values indicated better performance across all baseline measures. Lower values for SDLP indicate better performance. A positive r value indicates a positive relationship (blue) and a negative r value indicates a negative relationship (red). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
Fig 9.
Comparison of proportional dual-task costs (DTCs) between driving performance (SDLP) and listening performance (accuracy scores), for each Age Group, in the City section in+4 dB SNR and 0 dB SNR Listening Difficulty conditions.
Each violin plot represents the frequency of the data at each point on the y-axis. The center dot represents the mean. Error bars represent ±1 SE. Positive values indicate a dual-task cost (poorer performance in Dual compared to Single Task). * p < 0.05, *** p < 0.001.