New Age-Linked Asymmetries: Aging and the Processing of Familiar Versus Novel Language on the Input Versus Output Side

This research demonstrates 3 new age-linked asymmetries between identifying versus retrieving phonological information. Young and older adults read aloud familiar isolated words (e.g., mind ) and novel pseudowords (e.g., mond ) in a production task and identified lexical status for identical stimuli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology and aging 2007-03, Vol.22 (1), p.94-103
Main Authors: James, Lori E, MacKay, Donald G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult. Elderly
Age Differences
Age Factors
Aged
Ageing
Aging
Aging - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive Processes
Developmental psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Geriatric psychology
Human
Humans
Information processing
Language
Language acquisition
Language skills
Lexical Decision
Lexical decisions
Older people
Phonology
Pronunciation
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Recognition (Psychology)
Speech Perception
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Summary:This research demonstrates 3 new age-linked asymmetries between identifying versus retrieving phonological information. Young and older adults read aloud familiar isolated words (e.g., mind ) and novel pseudowords (e.g., mond ) in a production task and identified lexical status for identical stimuli in a comprehension task. Young adults made fewer errors than older adults in production but not comprehension (an age-related input-output asymmetry), and they produced pseudowords but not words with fewer errors than older adults (a lexical-status asymmetry). The lexical-status asymmetry also occurred for response onset times but not for output durations (an onset-output asymmetry). All 3 asymmetries were predicted under the transmission deficit hypothesis ( D. G. MacKay & D. M. Burke, 1990 ) but contradict theories such as general slowing that cannot explain why aging affects some types of information processing more than others.
ISSN:0882-7974
1939-1498
DOI:10.1037/0882-7974.22.1.94