Age in relation to hearing Aim: To determine whether age affects the ability to hear a range of different audio frequencies. Google Images Google Images By Stanley Peng, Arindum Saha & James Tanzil (Alexandria Park Community School – Year 10)

Hypothesis That with increasing age, the ability to hear high audio frequencies are hindered, or in some cases, completely nullified.

Method Convene a handful of individuals (teachers and students). Situate the teachers and students in a sound controlled environment. Play the range of audio frequencies in decreasing order (pitch). Indicate if they are able to hear each audio frequency by raising their hand. Record the results via tally.

Efficiency/Reliability To ensure reliable results, we will repeat this process 3 times. Test reliability through observing how the teachers and students react to the audio frequencies when muted (e.g. muting the volume and pretending to play the audio frequencies will establish whether the teachers and students react counterfeitly or legitimately).

The repetition of this experiment resulted in identical outcomes. Results/Data The repetition of this experiment resulted in identical outcomes.

Hearing Test (Ages 15 – 16) – Total of 25 Students Audio Frequencies (kHz) Amount of students able to hear these frequencies 8 25 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Hearing Test (Ages 13 – 14) – Total of 26 Students Audio Frequencies (kHz) Amount of students able to hear these frequencies 8 26 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 22 18 19 5 20 21

Hearing Test (Ages 20 – 60) – Total of 8 Teachers Audio Frequencies (kHz) Amount of teachers able to hear these frequencies 8 9 10 11 12 6 13 14 4 15 16 17 1 18 19 20 21 22

Discussion Adaptation and maturity are the two main factors which determine the outcome of an individuals ability to hear. Adaptation refers to the way individuals adjust to their surroundings (e.g. constantly exposing our ears to high frequencies may cause individual to adjust our hearing level to that of our surroundings). Maturity means the way each individual evolves in terms of their ability to hear, resulting in the loss of certain components that are normally required to hear efficiently (e.g. the loss of hair cells in our ears results in the damaging of the externals of our ears. The factor of concentration is very relative and influential in determining reliable outcomes for this experiment in terms of how it may affect the mindset of each individual. Anything short of a sound controlled environment would result in repercussions.

Conclusion The generalisation that we can make is in relation to age, the development of an individual’s ability to hear changes, hence resulting in the lack of ability to hear certain frequencies. The older an individual becomes, the more hindered their hearing is. The younger an individual is, the less developed their sense of hearing is hence their lack of ability to hear certain frequencies. Evidently, the experiment proved our hypothesis correct that with increasing age, the ability to hear fades.