{"id":{"repo_id":"uwo","oai_identifier":"oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/37076"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uwo/oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/37076","repository":{"repo_id":"uwo","name":"Western University","base_url":"https://uwo.scholaris.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Examining Age-related Enhancement of Multisensory Gain: The Role of Sensory Decline and Inverse Effectiveness","abstract":"Older adults experience a greater benefit from multisensory integration than their younger counterparts, but it is unclear why. One hypothesis is that age-related sensory decline weakens unisensory stimulus effectiveness, producing a boost in multisensory gain through inverse effectiveness. Many previous studies present stimuli at the same intensity for both younger and older adults (i.e., stimulus-matched), as opposed to accounting for each participant’s unique perceptual ability (i.e., perception-matched). This makes it difficult to discern the source of age-related differences in multisensory gain. Through a combination of stimulus-matched and perception-matched tasks, I found that older adults exhibit enhanced multisensory gain at low levels of detection and speech-perception, and higher levels of processing like semantic processing. Critically, when accounting for individual differences in perception, I found no age-related enhancements. Together, these findings suggest that sensory decline paired with existing mechanisms such as inverse effectiveness function together to enhance multisensory gain among older individuals.","abstract_html":"Older adults experience a greater benefit from multisensory integration than their younger counterparts, but it is unclear why. One hypothesis is that age-related sensory decline weakens unisensory stimulus effectiveness, producing a boost in multisensory gain through inverse effectiveness. Many previous studies present stimuli at the same intensity for both younger and older adults (i.e., stimulus-matched), as opposed to accounting for each participant’s unique perceptual ability (i.e., perception-matched). This makes it difficult to discern the source of age-related differences in multisensory gain. Through a combination of stimulus-matched and perception-matched tasks, I found that older adults exhibit enhanced multisensory gain at low levels of detection and speech-perception, and higher levels of processing like semantic processing. Critically, when accounting for individual differences in perception, I found no age-related enhancements. Together, these findings suggest that sensory decline paired with existing mechanisms such as inverse effectiveness function together to enhance multisensory gain among older individuals.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Schneeberger, Laura C"],"institution":"The University of Western Ontario","degree_name":"M Sc","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Stevenson, Ryan A."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-08-14","date_published":"2023-08-14","updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:56:09Z","subjects":["multisensory integration","inverse effectiveness","aging","hearing","vision","speech-in-noise"],"languages":["en_ca"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/37076","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Stevenson, Ryan A."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Schneeberger, Laura C"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2025-07-10T21:29:38Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-07-10T21:29:38Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2023-08-14"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["The University of Western Ontario"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M Sc"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["multisensory integration","inverse effectiveness","aging","hearing","vision","speech-in-noise"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en_ca"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/37076"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The thesis cover page in the PDF document includes references to Western University’s previous institutional repository platform, known as Scholarship@Western, and links to that platform (beginning with ir.lib.uwo.ca). In citing or referring to this thesis, use the DOI or handle from this page instead. Sample citation: Author name, \"Thesis title.\" (Year). Western University Open Repository. https://doi.org/10.71858/123456."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Older adults experience a greater benefit from multisensory integration than their younger counterparts, but it is unclear why. One hypothesis is that age-related sensory decline weakens unisensory stimulus effectiveness, producing a boost in multisensory gain through inverse effectiveness. Many previous studies present stimuli at the same intensity for both younger and older adults (i.e., stimulus-matched), as opposed to accounting for each participant’s unique perceptual ability (i.e., perception-matched). This makes it difficult to discern the source of age-related differences in multisensory gain. Through a combination of stimulus-matched and perception-matched tasks, I found that older adults exhibit enhanced multisensory gain at low levels of detection and speech-perception, and higher levels of processing like semantic processing. Critically, when accounting for individual differences in perception, I found no age-related enhancements. Together, these findings suggest that sensory decline paired with existing mechanisms such as inverse effectiveness function together to enhance multisensory gain among older individuals."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Examining Age-related Enhancement of Multisensory Gain: The Role of Sensory Decline and Inverse Effectiveness"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Stevenson, Ryan A."],"dc:creator":["Schneeberger, Laura C"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2025-07-10T21:29:38Z"],"dc:date.available":["2025-07-10T21:29:38Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2023-08-14"],"dc:description":["The thesis cover page in the PDF document includes references to Western University’s previous institutional repository platform, known as Scholarship@Western, and links to that platform (beginning with ir.lib.uwo.ca). In citing or referring to this thesis, use the DOI or handle from this page instead. Sample citation: Author name, \"Thesis title.\" (Year). Western University Open Repository. https://doi.org/10.71858/123456."],"dc:description.abstract":["Older adults experience a greater benefit from multisensory integration than their younger counterparts, but it is unclear why. One hypothesis is that age-related sensory decline weakens unisensory stimulus effectiveness, producing a boost in multisensory gain through inverse effectiveness. Many previous studies present stimuli at the same intensity for both younger and older adults (i.e., stimulus-matched), as opposed to accounting for each participant’s unique perceptual ability (i.e., perception-matched). This makes it difficult to discern the source of age-related differences in multisensory gain. Through a combination of stimulus-matched and perception-matched tasks, I found that older adults exhibit enhanced multisensory gain at low levels of detection and speech-perception, and higher levels of processing like semantic processing. Critically, when accounting for individual differences in perception, I found no age-related enhancements. Together, these findings suggest that sensory decline paired with existing mechanisms such as inverse effectiveness function together to enhance multisensory gain among older individuals."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/37076"],"dc:language.iso":["en_ca"],"dc:publisher":["The University of Western Ontario"],"dc:subject":["multisensory integration","inverse effectiveness","aging","hearing","vision","speech-in-noise"],"dc:title":["Examining Age-related Enhancement of Multisensory Gain: The Role of Sensory Decline and Inverse Effectiveness"],"dc:type":["thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_name":["M Sc"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:56:09Z"}