How does Height play into hostile mob spawns?

Except for Slimes, height does not have an effect on mob spawning. Chunks are 16x256x16, and are loaded all at once. It is impossible for only part of a chunk to be loaded. So this means yes, it's possible for a mob to spawn near bedrock even if you're on the surface.

Note that this is not true for mob spawners. A mob spawner will only spawn a new mob if a player is within 16 blocks of it (calculated spherically).

I know that this question was asked a long time ago, but just thought I'd give an update and a correction for future people that read this. (please consider that things may also change in future)

Ok, so first of all, you mentioned that a Chunk is 16x16 block around the player. This is incorrect. A chunk is a section of the terrain and is nothing to do with where the player is. The chunk does not move. A chunk is a 16x16x256 (W,D,H). So for the mob spawning. The quote you gave is correct, however, does not note that it is centred around the chunk that the player is standing on. So 7 chunks in every direction from the border of the chunk you are standing in.

And now for your question :) Recently, (not sure when it started) height has become even more important for mob spawning and each chunk is split into segments. This is to reduce the amount the game has to render and does this by going up in 16 block segments starting from 1. So 17, 33, 49, etc. This is called the lc value and can be shown on the debug screen (F3). It is important for mob spawning, why? Because any segments in the chunk above the maximum segment that has anything other than air in do not get checked for spawning conditions. This therefore means that there are many less blocks to check which in theory will make your mob grinder or xp farm more efficient.

There is a fair amount more... however, I think this answers what you wanted. At least I hope it does ;) Best of luck guys.