Arthur Wingfield

Nancy Lurie Marks Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience

wingfiel@brandeis.edu
781-736-3270
Volen National Center for Complex Systems, 363

Departments/Programs

Psychology

Degrees

Oxford University, D.Phil.
Northwestern University, M.A.
University of Connecticut, Storrs-Mansfield, B.A.

Expertise

Age-related hearing loss in older adults and its effects on cognitive function, speech comprehension and memory.

Profile

Please visit my new faculty profile page.

The memory problem in normal aging has its roots in reduced efficiency in acquiring new information, and it is largely this limitation that later translates into memory failures. Our approach to this question is focused on rapid speech comprehension, and memory for what has been heard. A major factor we examine is the effect of reduced hearing acuity, as hearing loss, whether mild, moderate, or more severe, often accompanies normal aging. In addition to these sensory changes are age-sensitive reductions in the capacity of working memory and speed of perceptual processing that would paradoxically seem to predict far more serious decrements in spoken language comprehension than one actually sees in healthy aging. At the same time, the perceptual effort due to even a mild hearing loss may bring a cost to successful speech perception in the form of a draw on attentional resources that would otherwise be available for understanding speech with complex syntax, or encoding the speech in memory. We then use computer editing of speech to add structural coherence, prosodic contour and linguistic constraints to the speech to explore how these features are used by older adults to bring their performance to a level more closely approaching that of the young. In this way we are able to examine the delicate interplay between "top-down" contextual support (at both the acoustic and linguistic levels) as it may be used to supplement the declining sensory, or "bottom-up" analysis of the acoustic signal itself. Dr. Wingfield and his collaborators also use functional brain imaging as an added tool in this exploration.

Courses Taught

BIOL	91g	Introduction to Research Practice
NEUR	91g	Introduction to Research Practice

Awards and Honors

Elected Member, The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (2013)

Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association (2010)

Fellow, American Psychological Society (1999)

National Institute on Aging MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award for studies on human memory (1998 - 2003)

Chair, Human Development and Aging Study Section, Division of Research Grants, National Institutes of Health (1996 - 1997)

Fellow, Gerontological Socciety of America. (1994)

National Institute on Aging MERIT Award (1987)

Editor's Award, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research (1976)

Scholarship

Lee, Y-S., Min, N.E., Wingfield, A., Grossman, M., & Peelle, J.E.. "Acoustic richness modulates the neural networks supporting intelligible speech processing." Hearing Research (2016). (forthcoming)

Wingfield, A. "The evolution of models of working memory and cognitive resources." Ear and Hearing (2016). (forthcoming)

Wingfield, A., & Lash, A.. "Audition and language comprehension in adult aging (8th Edition)." Handbook of the Psychology of Aging. Ed. K.W. Schaie & S. Willis. Elsevier, 2014 (forthcoming)

Brownell, H., Hoyte, K., Piquado, T., & Wingfield, A. "Analytic methods for single subject and small sample aphasia research." Handbook of the Neuropsychology of Language. Vol. 2: Language processing in the brain. Ed. Faust, M.. Blackwell-Wiley, 2010 (forthcoming)

Albers, M.W., Gilmore, G.C., Kaye, J, Murphy, C., Wingfield, A., et al.. "At the interface of sensory and motor dysfunctions in aging and Alzheimer’s disease." Alzheimer’s & Dementia 11. (2015): 70-98.

DeCaro, R., Peelle, J.E., Grossman, M., & Wingfield, A.. "The two sides of sensory-cognitive interactions: effects of age, hearing acuity, and working memory span on sentence comprehension.." Frontiers in Psychology: Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience (2015).

Payne, L., Rogers, C., Maharjan, S., Wingfield, A, & Sekuler, R.. Older and younger adults can reduce the Cocktail Party effect by listening with the right ear. Proc. of 22nd annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. San Francisco, CA: 2015.

Peelle, J. E., & Wingfield, A, ed. The effect of hearing loss on neural processing. Lausanne: Fronteirs Media, 2015.

Rogers, C.S., Wingfield, A.. "Stimulus-independent semantic bias misdirects word recognition in older adults." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 138. (2015).

Wingfield, A., & Peelle, J.E.. "The effects of hearing loss on neural processing and plasticity." Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00035.. (2015).

Wingfield, A., Amichetti, N.M., & Lash, A.. "Cognitive aging and hearing acuity: Modeling spoken language comprehension." Frontiers in Psychology: Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience (2015).

Wingfield, A.. "Commentary: Listening effort and fatigue: What exactly are we measuring? A British Society of Audiology Cognition in Hearing Special Interest group ‘white paper.’." International Journal of Audiology 53. (2015): 433-445.

Amichetti , N.M., & Wingfield. "A. Effects of Syntactic Ambiguity and Plausibility in Spoken Sentence Comprehension: Evidence from Young and Older Adults." Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA. April, 2014.

Bluestone, N.J., Cronin-Golomb, A., Wingfield, A., Panizzon, M.S., McKenzie, R.E., Franz, C.E., Kremen, W.S., & Lyons, M.. "Visual contrast sensitivity predicts domain-specific cognition: Findings from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging." Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA. April, 2014.

Cousins, K.A.Q., & Wingfield, A.. "Effects of age when remembering lists of semantically related and unrelated items." Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC. November, 2014.

Cousins, K.A.Q., Dar, J., Wingfield, A., & Miller, P.. "Acoustic masking disrupts time-dependent mechanisms of memory encoding in word-list recall." Memory & Cognition, 42. (2014): 622-638.

Lash, A. & Wingfield, A.. "A Bruner-Potter effect in audition? Spoken word recognition in adult aging.." Psychology & Aging. 29. (2014): 907-912.

Lash, A., & Wingfield, A. "Effects of Age and Hearing Acuity on Spoken Word Recognition in Facilitative and Misleading Linguistic Contexts." Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA. April, 2014.

Lee, Y-S., Peelle, J.E., Rogers, C.S., Min, N.E., Wingfield, A., & Grossman, M.. "Neural correlates of acoustic and linguistic contributions to listening effort during speech comprehension.." Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC. November, 2014.

Rogers. C,. Payne, L., Maharjan, S., Sekuler, R., & Wingfield, A.. "Impact of attentional control on dichotic listening in young and older adults." 13th Annual Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting, Long Beach, California. November, 2014.

Wingfield, A. "A speech recall, hearing acuity and the aging brain." Department of Psychology Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzlya, Israel. May, 2014.

Wingfield, A. "Effects of hearing loss on neural processing, plasticity, and aging." Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC. November, 2014.

Wingfield, A.. "Hearing acuity, cognitive aging, and the comprehension and recall of natural speech." Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Tel Aviv, Israel. May, 2014.

Wingfield, A.. "Perceptual effort and the prior-word effect in speech recall: A computational model." National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India. July, 2014.

Wingfield, Arthur. "Stability in the face of change. Language, hearing acuity, and the aging brain.." Invited seminar, Tulane University Aging Center, Tulane University. March, 2014.

Amichetti, N.M., Stanley, R.S., White, A.G., & Wingfield, A.. "Monitoring the capacity of working memory: Executive control and listening effort.." Memory and Cognition 41. (2013): 839-849.

Cousins, K.A.Q., Dar, J., Wingfield, A., & Miller, P.. "Acoustic masking disrupts time-dependent mechanisms of memory encoding in word-list recall.." Memory & Cognition (2013).

Lash, A., Rogers, C.S., Zoller, A., & Wingfield, A.. "Expectation and entropy in spoken word recognition: Effects of age and hearing acuity." Experimental Aging Research 39. (2013): 235-253.

Benichov, J., Cox, L.C., Tun, P.A., & Wingfield, A.. "Word recognition within a linguistic context: Effects of age, hearing acuity, verbal ability and cognitive function." Ear and Hearing 33. (2012): 250-256.

Brownell, H., Hoyte, K., Piquado, T., & Wingfield, A. "Analytic methods for single subject and small sample aphasia research: Some illustrations and practical discussion.." Handbook of the neuropsychology of language. Vol. 2: Language processing in the brain: Special populations. Ed. M. Faust. Chichester, UK: Blackwell-Wiley, 2012. 595-618.

Cousins, K.A.Q., Miller, P., & Wingfield, A.. "Investigating the variability in the susceptibility to the effects of noise-masking on memory." 42nd Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, New Orleans, LA. October, 2012.

Humes, L.E., Dubno, J.R., Gordon-Salant, S., Lister, J.J., Cacace, A.T., Cruickshanks, K.J., Gates, G.A., Wilson,. R.H., & Wingfield, A. "Central presbycusis: A review and evaluation of the evidence." Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 23. (2012): 635-666.

Piquado, T., Benichov, J., Brownell, H., & Wingfield, A.. "The hidden effect of hearing acuity on speech recall, and compensatory effects of self-paced listening.." International Journal of Audiology 51. (2012): 576-583.

Stanley, R., Tun, P.A., Brownell, H., & Wingfield, A. "Hidden costs of effortful listening on speech comprehension." Speech processing and auditory processing disorders. Ed. T.P. Long & L.R. Eifert. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2012

Wingfield, A., & Peelle, J.E.. "How does hearing loss affect the brain?." Aging and Health 8. (2012): 107-109.

Cousins, K.A.Q., Miller, P., & Wingfield, A. "Difficult perception impairs recall, but only if the timing is right." 41st Annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC. November, 2011.

Peelle, J.E., Troiani, V., Grossman, M., & Wingfield, A. "Hearing loss in older adults affects neural systems supporting speech comprehension.." Journal of Neuroscience 31. (2011): 12638-12643.

Miller, P., & Wingfield, A.. "Distinct effects of perceptual quality on auditory word recognition, memory formation and recall in a neural model of sequential memory.." Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 4:14. doi:10.3389/fnsys.2010.00014. (2010).

Peelle, J., E., Troiani, V., Wingfield, A., & Grossman, M. "Neural processing during older adults’ comprehension of spoken sentences: Age differences in resource allocation and connectivity." Cerebral Cortex 20. (2010): 773-782.

Piquado, T., Cousins, K., Wingfield, A., & Miller,. "Effects of degraded sensory input on memory for speech: Behavioral data and a test of biologically constrained computational models.." Brain Research doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2010.09.070. (2010).

Piquado, T., Isaacowitz, D., & Wingfield, A. "Pupillometry as a measure of cognitive effort in younger and older adults.." Psychophysiology 47. (2010): 560-569.

Tun, P.A., Benichov, J., & Wingield, A.. "Response latencies in auditory sentence comprehension: Effects of linguistic versus perceptual challenge." Psychology and Aging 25. (2010): 730-735.

Hoyte, K.J., Brownell, H., & Wingfield, A.. "Components of speech prosody and their use in detection of syntactic structure by older adults." Experimental Aging Research, 35. (2009): 129-151.

Stewart, R., & Wingfield, A. "Hearing loss and cognitive effort in older adults’ report accuracy for verbal materials." Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 20. (2009): 147-154.

Tun, P.A., McCoy, S., & Wingfield, A.. "Aging, hearing acuity, and the attentional costs of effortful listening." Psychology and Aging 24. (2009): 761-766.

Cox, L.C., McCoy, S.L., Tun, P.A., & Wingfield, A.. "Monotic auditory processing disorder tests in the older population.." Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 19. (2008): 293-308.

Golomb, J., Peelle, J.E., Addis, K.M., Kahana, M.J., & Wingfield, A.. "Effects of adult aging on utilization of temporal and semantic associations during free and serial recall." Memory and Cognition 36. (2008): 947-956.

Hoyte, K.J., Brownell, H., & Wingfield, A.. "Components of speech prosody and their use in detection of syntactic structure by older adults." Experimental Aging Research 35. (2008): 129-151.

Stewart, R., & Wingfield, A.. "Hearing loss and cognitive effort in older adults' report accuracy for verbal materials." Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 20. (2008): 147-154.

Stewart, R., Yetton, E., & Wingfield, A.. "Perception of alternated speech operates similarly in young and older adults with age-normal hearig.." Perception & Psychophysics 70. (2008): 337-345.

Stewart, R., Yetton, E., Wingfield, A.. "Perception of alternated speech operates similarly in young and older adults with age-normal hearing." Perception and Psychophysics 70. (2008): 337-345.

Tun, P.A., McCoy, S., & Wingfield, A.. "Aging, hearing acuity, and the attentional costs of effortful listening.." Psychology and Aging (In Press). (2008).

Golomb, J.D., Peelle, J.E., & Wingfield, A.. "Effects of stimulus variability and adult aging on adaptation to time-compressed speech.." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 121. (2007): 1701-1708.

Reilly, J., Troiani, V., Grossman, M., & Wingfield, A.. "An introduction to hearing loss and screening procedures for behavioral research.." Behavior Research Methods 39. (2007): 667-672.

Wingfield, A., & Tun, P.A.. "Cognitive supports and cognitive constraints on comprehension of spoken language.." Journal of the American Academy of Audiology 18. (2007): 567-577.

Wingfield, A., Panizzon, M., Grant, M.D., Toomey, R., Kremen, W., Franz, C.E., Jacobson,. "A twin-study of genetic contributions to hearing acuity in late middle-age.." Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences 62A. (2007): 1294-1299.

Fallon, M., Peelle, J. E., Wingfield, A.. "Spoken sentence processing in young and older adults modulated by task demands: evidence from self-paced listening." J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 61. 1 (2006): P10-7.

Howard, M. W., Kahana, M. J., Wingfield, A.. "Aging and contextual binding: modeling recency and lag recency effects with the temporal context model." Psychon Bull Rev 13. 3 (2006): 439-45.

Little, D. M., McGrath, L.M., Prentice, K.J., & Wingfield, A. . "Semantic encoding of spoken sentences: Adult aging and the preservartion of conceptual short-term memory." Applied Psycholinguistics 27. (2006): 487-511.

Miller, L. M., Cohen, J. A., Wingfield, A.. "Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading." Mem Cognit 34. 6 (2006): 1355-67.

Sekuler, R., McLaughlin, C., Kahana, M. J., Wingfield, A., Yotsumoto, Y.. "Short-term visual recognition and temporal order memory are both well-preserved in aging." Psychol Aging 21. 3 (2006): 632-7.

Titone, D. A., Koh, C. K., Kjelgaard, M. M., Bruce, S., Speer, S. R., Wingfield, A.. "Age-related impairments in the revision of syntactic misanalyses: effects of prosody." Lang Speech 49. Pt 1 (2006): 75-99.

Wingfield, A., Brownell, H., Hoyte, K. J.. "Variable solutions to the same problem: aberrant practice effects in object naming by three aphasic patients." Brain Lang 97. 3 (2006): 351-6.

Wingfield, A., Grossman, M.. "Language and the aging brain: patterns of neural compensation revealed by functional brain imaging." J Neurophysiol 96. 6 (2006): 2830-9.

Wingfield, A., McCoy, S. L., Peelle, J. E., Tun, P. A., Cox, L. C.. "Effects of adult aging and hearing loss on comprehension of rapid speech varying in syntactic complexity." J Am Acad Audiol 17. 7 (2006): 487-97.

Wingfield, A., Tun, P.A., McCoy, S.L., Stewart, R.A., & Cox, L.C.. "Sensory and cognitive constraints in comprehension of spoken langauge in adult aging." Seminars in Hearing 27. (2006): 273-283.

Zaromb, F. M., Howard, M. W., Dolan, E. D., Sirotin, Y. B., Tully, M., Wingfield, A., Kahana, M. J.. "Temporal associations and prior-list intrusions in free recall." J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 32. 4 (2006): 792-804.

Wingfield,Arthur, co-ed. H. Goodglass. Anomia: Neuroanatomical and Cognitive Correlates. San Diego: Academic Press, 1997.

Wingfield,Arthur, with D.L. Byrnes. The Psychology of Human Memory. New York: Academic Press, 1981.