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Abstract
Research has demonstrated that synthesized speech can be adequately understood under ideal conditions, although listeners' comprehension of synthesized speech has received less attention than has intelligibility. However, little is known about the comprehensibility of synthesized speech under less than ideal conditions, such as when the listener's attention is divided. Further, little is known about older adults' ability to comprehend synthesized speech. This study investigated younger and older listeners' comprehension of synthesized discourse under focused attention and divided attention conditions. Results demonstrated that synthesized discourse can be adequately comprehended by young and older adults in a focused attention condition. However, when attention is divided, listeners were able to comprehend significantly less of the synthesized discourse than the natural discourse. This effect was greater for older adult listeners.