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The Attentional Control of Younger and Older Adults in Forced-Attention Dichotic Listening of Cantonese Tones.

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Title: The Attentional Control of Younger and Older Adults in Forced-Attention Dichotic Listening of Cantonese Tones.
Authors: Wang, Yuqi1, Yang, Xiaohu2, Qin, Quentin Zhen3 hmzqin@ust.hk
Source: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Jun2026, Vol. 69 Issue 6, p2830-2848. 19p.
Subject Terms: *Attention, *Experimental design, *Research, *Aging, *Auditory perception, *Speech perception, *Cerebral dominance, Dichotic listening tests, Task performance, Research funding, Logistic regression analysis, Musical perception, Descriptive statistics, Analysis of variance, Data analysis software, Musical pitch
Geographic Terms: Hong Kong (China)
Abstract: Purpose: The forced-attention dichotic listening (FADL) task is used to examine how people control attention during speech processing. Younger adults can flexibly shift attention to instructed ears from the baseline right-ear advantage (REA) for consonants (cued by temporal information). However, it remains underexplored whether tonal language speakers can control their attention to tones, which are cued by spectral information and typically trigger a left-ear advantage (LEA) at baseline. Moreover, older adults sometimes fail to show these patterns, as compared to younger adults, possibly due to age-related decline. This study investigated whether these attentional controls generalize to Cantonese tones and whether younger and older Cantonese speakers show different attentional control in an FADL task of Cantonese tones. Method: Sixty native Cantonese-speaking younger adults, aged 18-25 years (Experiment 1), and 64 older adults, aged 59-72 years (Experiment 2), completed tone training followed by an FADL test. In three conditions (i.e., nonforced, forced-left [FL], and forced-right [FR]), they identified dichotically presented Cantonese tones according to attentional instructions. Results: Both the younger and older adults successfully modulated attention. The participants, regardless of age, enhanced the LEA in the FL condition and reversed it to an REA in the FR condition. An exploratory group comparison showed that younger adults might exhibit a significantly larger shift of ear preference in the FL condition than older adults. Conclusions: The findings provide evidence that auditory attentional control is a highly flexible and cue-general cognitive function, which can be generalized to Cantonese tones. Crucially, the core performance of attentional control in Cantonese processing remains largely preserved with aging. It suggests that age-related decline is not the only consequence of aging, but compensatory strategies are adopted by older adults to cope with possible decline and keep their behavioral performance intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
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  Data: The Attentional Control of Younger and Older Adults in Forced-Attention Dichotic Listening of Cantonese Tones.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Wang%2C+Yuqi%22">Wang, Yuqi</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Yang%2C+Xiaohu%22">Yang, Xiaohu</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Qin%2C+Quentin+Zhen%22">Qin, Quentin Zhen</searchLink><relatesTo>3</relatesTo><i> hmzqin@ust.hk</i>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Speech%2C+Language+%26+Hearing+Research%22">Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research</searchLink>. Jun2026, Vol. 69 Issue 6, p2830-2848. 19p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Hong+Kong+%28China%29%22">Hong Kong (China)</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Purpose: The forced-attention dichotic listening (FADL) task is used to examine how people control attention during speech processing. Younger adults can flexibly shift attention to instructed ears from the baseline right-ear advantage (REA) for consonants (cued by temporal information). However, it remains underexplored whether tonal language speakers can control their attention to tones, which are cued by spectral information and typically trigger a left-ear advantage (LEA) at baseline. Moreover, older adults sometimes fail to show these patterns, as compared to younger adults, possibly due to age-related decline. This study investigated whether these attentional controls generalize to Cantonese tones and whether younger and older Cantonese speakers show different attentional control in an FADL task of Cantonese tones. Method: Sixty native Cantonese-speaking younger adults, aged 18-25 years (Experiment 1), and 64 older adults, aged 59-72 years (Experiment 2), completed tone training followed by an FADL test. In three conditions (i.e., nonforced, forced-left [FL], and forced-right [FR]), they identified dichotically presented Cantonese tones according to attentional instructions. Results: Both the younger and older adults successfully modulated attention. The participants, regardless of age, enhanced the LEA in the FL condition and reversed it to an REA in the FR condition. An exploratory group comparison showed that younger adults might exhibit a significantly larger shift of ear preference in the FL condition than older adults. Conclusions: The findings provide evidence that auditory attentional control is a highly flexible and cue-general cognitive function, which can be generalized to Cantonese tones. Crucially, the core performance of attentional control in Cantonese processing remains largely preserved with aging. It suggests that age-related decline is not the only consequence of aging, but compensatory strategies are adopted by older adults to cope with possible decline and keep their behavioral performance intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ehh&AN=194600827
RecordInfo BibRecord:
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    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1044/2026_JSLHR-25-00915
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 19
        StartPage: 2830
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Attention
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Experimental design
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Research
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Aging
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Auditory perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Speech perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cerebral dominance
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Dichotic listening tests
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Task performance
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Research funding
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Logistic regression analysis
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Musical perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Descriptive statistics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Analysis of variance
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Data analysis software
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Musical pitch
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Hong Kong (China)
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Attentional Control of Younger and Older Adults in Forced-Attention Dichotic Listening of Cantonese Tones.
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            NameFull: Wang, Yuqi
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            NameFull: Yang, Xiaohu
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            NameFull: Qin, Quentin Zhen
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            – D: 01
              M: 06
              Text: Jun2026
              Type: published
              Y: 2026
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