Aging affects steaks more than knives: Evidence that the processing of words related to motor skills is relatively spared in aging

Reifegerste, Jana; Meyer, Antje S.; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Ullman, Michael T.

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104941

Cited by 12 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 166 publications

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“…Note that we found that younger adults were faster at motor than nonmotor words (e.g., see negative slope indicated in the solid line in Figure 1B), whereas the one previous study examining the effect of MOTOR-RELATEDNESS on aging in lexical decision reported in two separate experiments that younger adults were faster at nonmotor than motor words (Reifegerste et al, 2021). Since this difference could be due to differences in the covariates that were controlled for (covariates can change regression estimates and even lead to sign reversals; L. Friedman & Wall, 2005;Wurm & Fisicaro, 2014), we also ran a sensitivity analysis in which our model included only those terms that were in one or both of the models in the two lexical decision experiments reported by Reifegerste et al (2021). Nevertheless, we again obtained (see Tables A25 and A26) the same pattern of findings as in our main analysis, including a finding of younger adults showing faster RTs at motor than nonmotor words.…”

Section: Rts: Sensitivity Analysescontrasting

confidence: 79%

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Embodied cognition comes of age: A processing advantage for action words is modulated by aging and the task.

Miklashevsky,

Reifegerste,

García

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Processing action words (e.g., fork, throw) engages neurocognitive motor representations, consistent with embodied cognition principles. Despite age-related neurocognitive changes that could affect action words, and a rapidly aging population, the impact of healthy aging on action-word processing is poorly understood. Previous research suggests that in lexical tasks demanding semantic access, such as picture naming, higher motor-relatedness can enhance performance (e.g., fork vs. pier)—particularly in older adults, perhaps due to the age-related relative sparing of motor-semantic circuitry, which can support action words. However, motor-relatedness was recently found to affect performance in younger but not older adults in lexical decision. We hypothesized this was due to decreased semantic access in this task, especially in older adults. Here we tested effects of motor-relatedness on 2,174 words in younger and older adults not only in lexical decision but also in reading aloud, in which semantic access is minimal. Mixed-effects regression, controlling for phonological, lexical, and semantic variables, yielded results consistent with our predictions. In lexical decision, younger adults were faster and more accurate at words with higher-motor relatedness, whereas older adults showed no motor-relatedness effects. In reading aloud, neither age group showed such effects. Multiple sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the patterns were robust. Altogether, whereas previous research indicates that in lexical tasks demanding semantic access, higher motor-relatedness can enhance performance, especially in older adults, evidence now suggests that such effects are attenuated with decreased semantic access, which in turn depends on the task as well as aging itself.

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Section: Rts: Sensitivity Analysescontrasting

confidence: 79%

“…Nevertheless, we again obtained (see Tables A25 and A26) the same pattern of findings as in our main analysis, including a finding of younger adults showing faster RTs at motor than nonmotor words. See the Discussion section for more on the differing results between the present study and Reifegerste et al (2021).…”

Section: Rts: Sensitivity Analysesmentioning

confidence: 67%

Embodied cognition comes of age: A processing advantage for action words is modulated by aging and the task.

Miklashevsky,

Reifegerste,

García

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…We believe that more evidence needs to be obtained to further support morphological processing preservation in healthy older adults. In fact, recent studies (Reifegerste et al, 2021) have shown age-related results in lexical decision tasks (Experiments 1 and 2) as a function of the type of word. These authors observed slower responses for older adults in comparison to younger adults when non-motor words (e.g., steak) appeared, although this effect did not emerge when motor words were presented (e.g., knife).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Morphological processing of complex and simple pseudo-words in adults and older adults

et al. 2022

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The role of morphemes in lexical recognition has been extensively explored in recent years, although the evidence from older adults is extremely scarce. In this study, we carry out a lexical decision task to assess the interference generated by morphological composition of pseudo-words (i.e., the longer and more error prone decisions on pseudo-words made up of morphemes in comparison to pseudo-words without morphological appearance) in a group of young and older adults (mean = 74 years). The results show the expected effect on both response latencies and error rates for both groups. The effect of imageability is also significant. The specific results for the older adults show an interaction between the morphological effect and cognitive reserve: older adults with higher levels of cognitive reserve are more sensitive to morphological interference than older adults with lower cognitive reserve. The overall results are interpreted based on current models of morphological processing and aging.

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“…Older age did not predict reaction times for action naming. A recent study showed that action naming was less affected by age, possibly because action and object naming rely on different neural networks [ 78 ]. In addition, research suggests that action naming is a slower process compared to object naming because more cognitive resources are needed [ 13 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting the brain into gear: An online study investigating cognitive reserve and word-finding abilities in healthy ageing

et al. 2023

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Lifetime experiences and lifestyle, such as education and engaging in leisure activities, contribute to cognitive reserve (CR), which delays the onset of age-related cognitive decline. Word-finding difficulties have been identified as the most prominent cognitive problem in older age. Whether CR mitigates age-related word-finding difficulties is currently unknown. Using picture-naming and verbal fluency tasks, this online study aimed to investigate the effect of CR on word-finding ability in younger, middle-aged, and older adults. All participants were right-handed, monolingual speakers of British English. CR for both the period preceding and coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic was measured through years of education and questionnaires concerning the frequency of engagement in cognitive, leisure, and physical activities. Linear mixed-effect models demonstrated that older adults were less accurate at action and object naming than middle-aged and younger adults. Higher CR in middle age predicted higher accuracies for action and object naming. Hence, high CR might not only be beneficial in older age, but also in middle age. This benefit will depend on multiple factors: the underlying cognitive processes, individual general cognitive processing abilities, and whether task demands are high. Moreover, younger and middle-aged adults displayed faster object naming compared to older adults. There were no differences between CR scores for the period preceding and coinciding with the pandemic. However, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on CR and, subsequently, on word-finding ability might only become apparent in the long term. This article discusses the implications of CR in healthy ageing as well as suggestions for conducting language production studies online.

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Aging affects steaks more than knives: Evidence that the processing of words related to motor skills is relatively spared in aging

Cited by 12 publications

References 166 publications

Embodied cognition comes of age: A processing advantage for action words is modulated by aging and the task.

Embodied cognition comes of age: A processing advantage for action words is modulated by aging and the task.

Morphological processing of complex and simple pseudo-words in adults and older adults

Getting the brain into gear: An online study investigating cognitive reserve and word-finding abilities in healthy ageing

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