Demographic differences in hearing thresholds compared to suprathreshold measures

African American race and female sex are identified as protective for hearing sensitivity. The mechanisms supporting this protection are not fully understood and it is unclear whether similar mechanisms explain suprathreshold processing. Using robust linear and linear mixed-effect models, the best predictors of hearing sensitivity were contrasted with the best predictors of suprathreshold measures in younger and older listeners. The listeners (N=121) had thresholds <25 dB HL up to 3 kHz. Self-identified race (African American or Caucasian) and sex were hypothesized to moderate outcomes on hearing sensitivity, time-compressed speech recognition, pulse rate discrimination and auditory brainstem responses. Support for the hypotheses occurred if race and sex were among the predictors resulting in the models with lowest mean absolute error. The hypotheses were partially supported. However, confounding factors included 3 kHz hearing sensitivity (which moderated the association between sex, race, and Wave V latency) and episodic memory (which moderated the association between processing speed, sex, and pulse rate discrimination). Moreover, the hearing sensitivity benefit associated with African American listeners did not extend to suprathreshold measures. The biological mechanisms associated with race and sex, thought to underly differences in hearing sensitivity, may be inadequate to explain differences in auditory temporal processing.