When viewed cross-sectionally, aging seems to negatively affect speech comprehension. However, aging is a heterogeneous process, and variability among older adults is typically large. In this study, we investigated language comprehension as a function of individual differences in older adults. Specifically, we tested whether hearing thresholds, working memory, inhibition, and individual alpha frequency would predict event-related potential amplitudes in response to classic psycholinguistic manipulations at the sentence level. Twenty-nine healthy older adults (age range 61–76 years) listened to English sentences containing reduced relative clauses and object-relative clauses while their electroencephalogram was recorded. We found that hearing thresholds and working memory predicted P600 amplitudes early during reduced relative clause processing, while individual alpha frequency predicted P600 amplitudes at a later point in time. The results suggest that participants with better hearing and larger working memory capacity simultaneously activated both the preferred and the dispreferred interpretation of reduced relative clauses, while participants with worse hearing and smaller working memory capacity only activated the preferred interpretation. They also suggest that participants with a higher individual alpha frequency had a higher likelihood of successfully reanalysing the sentence toward the reduced relative clause reading than participants with a lower individual alpha frequency. By contrast, we found no relationship between object-relative clause processing and working memory or hearing thresholds. Taken together, the results support the view that older adults employ different strategies during auditory sentence processing dependent on their hearing and cognitive abilities and that there is no single ability that uniformly predicts sentence processing outcomes.

The current study describes the development and validation of a novel scale (BILEX) designed to assess young bilingual children's receptive vocabulary in both languages, their conceptual vocabulary, and translational equivalents. BILEX was developed to facilitate the assessment of vocabulary size for both of the children's languages within one session without any transfer from one language to the other. One-hundred-andeighty-two 3-year-old children participated in the studies of reliability and validity. Psychometric properties have very good consistency and reliability, along with good concurrent, construct, and criteria validity.

No abstract

11When viewed cross-sectionally, aging seems to negatively affect speech comprehension. 12 However, aging is a heterogeneous process, and variability among older adults is 13 typically large. In this study, we investigated language comprehension as a function of 14 individual differences in older adults. Specifically, we tested whether hearing thresholds, 15 working memory, inhibition, and individual alpha frequency would predict event-related 16 potential amplitudes in response to classic psycholinguistic manipulations at the 17 sentence level. Twenty-nine healthy older adults (age range 61-76 years) listened to 18 English sentences containing reduced relative clauses and object-relative clauses while 19 their electroencephalogram was recorded. We found that hearing thresholds and 20 working memory predicted P600 amplitudes early during reduced relative clause 21 processing, while individual alpha frequency predicted P600 amplitudes at a later point 22 in time. The results suggest that participants with better hearing and larger working 23 memory capacity simultaneously activated both the preferred and the dispreferred 24 interpretation of reduced relative clauses, while participants with worse hearing and 25 smaller working memory capacity only activated the preferred interpretation. They also 26 suggest that participants with a higher individual alpha frequency had a higher 27 likelihood of successfully reanalysing the sentence towards the reduced relative clause 28 reading than participants with a lower individual alpha frequency. By contrast, we 29 found no relationship between object-relative clause processing and working memory or 30 hearing thresholds. Taken together, the results support the view that older adults 31 employ different strategies during auditory sentence processing dependent on their 32 hearing and cognitive abilities and that there is no single ability that uniformly predicts 33 sentence processing outcomes. 34 SENTENCE PROCESSING IN OLDER ADULTS 3 Individual Differences in Peripheral Hearing and Cognition Reveal Sentence Processing 35 Differences in Healthy Older Adults 36persuaded must be reanalysed as a past participle within an RRC. A "good-enough" 105 interpretation, by contrast, refers to cases in which the initial reading is not fully 106 revised in spite of the conflicting evidence, i.e. in the case of our TVRR example, the 107 assumption that the broker persuaded (someone) to do something would be 108 (incorrectly) maintained. Crucially for present purposes, the RRC paradigm in Table 1 109 allows us to probe the extent to which participants reanalyse ambiguous RRC 110 constructions. If a reanalysis has not taken place when the finite main clause verb (was) 111 is encountered later in the sentence, it should render the sentence ungrammatical due to 112 the slot of the main clause verb already having been filled by persuaded. This should 113 engender an ungrammaticality-related response. A comparison between the TVRR and 114 the IVWR sentences, which are indeed rendered ung...

Fig. 1. Correlation between the strength of an individual's amputation desire and the surface area of a circumscribed region in the inferior parietal lobe (depicted in B). C: Boxand-whisker plots show distributions of plausibility ratings for two types of causality arguably implied by this correlation, i.e. neural primacy (dark bars) or behavioural primacy (light bars). A and B reprinted, (with permission), from ref. [6].