Tracking Sentence Planning and Production

To assess age differences in the costs of language planning and production. A controlled sentence production task was combined with digital pursuit rotor tracking. Participants were asked to track a moving target while formulating a sentence using specified nouns and verbs and to continue to track t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2011-03, Vol.66 (2), p.160-168
Main Authors: KEMPER, Susan, BONTEMPO, Daniel, MCKEDY, Whitney, SCHMALZRIED, Ralynn, TAGLIAFERRI, Bruno, KIEWEG, Doug
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult. Elderly
Age differences
Aged
Aging
Aging - psychology
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Developmental psychology
Elderly people
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gerontology
Grammar
Humans
Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences
Language
Male
Memory, Short-Term
Motion Perception
Moving targets
Nouns
Orientation
Production and perception of spoken language
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor Performance
Pursuit
Reaction Time
Semantics
Speech Production Measurement
Syntax
Tracking
Verbal Behavior
Verbs
Vocabulary
Young Adult
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Summary:To assess age differences in the costs of language planning and production. A controlled sentence production task was combined with digital pursuit rotor tracking. Participants were asked to track a moving target while formulating a sentence using specified nouns and verbs and to continue to track the moving target while producing their response. The length of the critical noun phrase (NP) as well as the type of verb provided were manipulated. The analysis indicated that sentence planning was more costly than sentence production, and sentence planning costs increased when participants had to incorporate a long NP into their sentence. The long NPs also tended to be shifted to the end of the sentence, whereas short NPs tended to be positioned after the verb. Planning or producing responses with long NPs was especially difficult for older adults, although verb type and NP shift had similar costs for young and older adults. Pursuit rotor tracking during controlled sentence production reveals the effects of aging on sentence planning and production.
ISSN:1079-5014
1758-5368
DOI:10.1093/geronb/gbq079