Parkinson disease (PD) is frequently associated with speech and voice deficits, including changes in phonatory, articulatory, speech intelligibility, and prosodic aspects (Spencer, Sanchez, McAllen, & Weir, 2010). Prior studies have investigated listener perception of speech produced by speakers with PD using structured speech tasks such as word repetitions, sentence readings, and passage readings (i.e., Cheang & Pell, 2004; Dagenais, 2011). However, research has also indicated the need for studies with more naturalistic speech stimuli, including monologues, to determine perceptual abilities of different listener groups. Limited studies have examined perception by different listener groups for monologues produced by individuals with PD. The purpose of this study was to investigate aging effects among different listener groups during perception of monologues produced by individuals with PD and age- and gender-matched neurologically normal speakers (NS). The study included three listener groups (younger, middle-aged, older-aged adults). Speakers included five individuals with PD and five NS. All speakers produced a short monologue on a topic of interest. The three listener groups listened to the recorded monologues and completed a visual analog scale (VAS) to rate seven speech variables (including pitch, pitch variability, loudness, speech rate, pauses, understandability, and perception of effort) for the two speaker groups. Among the seven variables, results indicated that listener groups rated understandability and perception of effort significantly differently for individuals with PD and NS. All three listener groups rated the understandability for speakers with PD to be significantly lower than NS. However, the listener groups did not have any significantly different ratings for the remaining five variables including pitch, loudness, and speech rate. In addition, when the listener groups were compared amongst themselves, there were no significant aging effects among the groups for perception of monologues. Findings from the study provide evidence for similar perception among different aged normal listener groups for perception of monologues by individuals with PD and neurologically normal speakers.Communication Sciences & Disorder
