Age Differences in On-Line Syntactic Processing

Reading timeandcomprehensionfor subject-relative (e.g., The pilot that admired the nurse dominated the conversation) and object-relative (e.g., The pilot that the nurse admired dominated the conversation) constructions were compared among younger and older readers. Younger adults, but not older adul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental aging research 2000-10, Vol.26 (4), p.315-322
Main Authors: Stine-Morrow, E A, Ryan, S, Leonard, J S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult. Elderly
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging - psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Developmental psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Language
Linguistics
Middle Aged
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reading
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Summary:Reading timeandcomprehensionfor subject-relative (e.g., The pilot that admired the nurse dominated the conversation) and object-relative (e.g., The pilot that the nurse admired dominated the conversation) constructions were compared among younger and older readers. Younger adults, but not older adults, differentially allocated time to the more taxing object-relative constructions. Although there were no age differences in comprehension of subject-relative constructions, older adults demonstrated lower levels of comprehension for object-relative sentences. Inconsistent with a modularity view positing preservation in ''interpretive'' processes with age, these results suggest that age-related differences in working-memory capacity limit responsiveness to text demands, thus compromising sentence comprehension.
ISSN:0361-073X
1096-4657
DOI:10.1080/036107300750015714