Aging on the input versus output side: Theoretical implications of age-linked asymmetries between detecting versus retrieving orthographic information.

Abstract

This experiment tested for age-linked asymmetries predicted under Node Structure theory (NST; D. G. MacKay & D. M. Burke, 1990) between detecting versus retrieving orthographic information. Older adults detected that briefly presented words were correctly spelled (e.g., endeavor) or misspelled (e.g., endeavuor) as readily as did young adults. However, they were less able than young adults to retrieve the correctly and incorrectly spelled words that they had seen. These age-linked asymmetries were not due to educational factors, stimulus characteristics, sensory-level factors, task complexity, floor or ceiling effects, general slowing, or cohort-related activities, but they were consistent with NST predictions and with similar asymmetries in a wide range of other studies. By contrast, repetition deficits in detecting and retrieving repeated- versus unrepeated-letter misspellings (e.g., elderdly vs. elderkly) were symmetrical or equivalent in magnitude for young and older adults. Implications for a wide range of theories of cognitive aging and of repetition deficits are discussed.

Sequencing, Speech Production, and Selective Effects of Aging on Phonological and Morphological Speech Errors.

“…Editor theories (e.g., Levelt, 1989) can likewise explain this age-linked decline in error correction if internal editing becomes less efficient with aging. However, other studies have failed to observe age-linked declines in lexical error correction (McNamara, Obler, Au, Durso, & Albert, 1992), orthographic error correction (MacKay et al, 1999), orthographic error detection (MacKay et al, 1999;Shafto, 2002), and keypress error detection (Rabbitt, 1979), and the present data fit this pattern of mixed support: For experimental trials in the present study, young adults detected and corrected their errors no more often than older adults, and, contrary to post hoc predictions derived from editor theories, there was no agelinked increase in the probability of correcting errors on critical than noncritical segments, and no age-linked increase in the relative frequency of three-time versus two-time corrections in multiple error corrections.…”

“…Major age-linked declines occur in a wide variety of production tasks, such as everyday word retrieval and production of a target word from its definition (e.g., Burke, MacKay, Worthley, & Wade, 1991) or from its initial letter and semantic category (e.g., McCrae, Arenberg, & Costa, 1987); reading and producing isolated words under time pressure (e.g., Schmitter-Edgecombe, Vesneski, & Jones, 2000); naming pictures, objects, and actions (e.g., Au et al, 1995); producing pronouns in sentences (e.g., Kemper, 1992); and producing the spelling of familiar, irregularly spelled words (e.g., MacKay, Abrams, & Pedroza, 1999).…”

Characterization of self-reported communication disorders in elderly women living in Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil

“…Other studies point to a positive association between the linguistic decline and cognition, educational level, depression, sex and social relations. 3,6,7 One study evaluated the influence of educational level and age within adult speech, and verified associations between the study level and the oral comprehension tasks, reading, graphic comprehension, designation, lexical availability, dictation, graphic designation of actions and number reading. 22 In the current study, the prevalence of selfreported hearing hardship was 17.61%.…”

“…2 Although communication disorders can affect people of any age, deficits are observed with increasing age, resulting from organic and functional changes that occur in the natural aging process. 3,4 However, studies of linguistics and communicative manifestations of elderly describe, mostly, the sequelaes of pathological processes, and there are few investigations describing the language of healthy elderly. 5,6 Changes in language performance have been noticed in healthy elderly, however, these facts are not significant unless they are related to other pathological processes.…”

Is Cognitive Aging All Downhill? Current Theory versus Reality

“…Resource theories fail to fit two general developmental patterns: no difference and improvement with aging from 65 to 75. Well-established examples from these categories include general world knowledge [Hambrick, Salthouse, & Meinz, 1999], vocabulary size Kemper, 1992;Light, 1991;Schaie, 1994], accuracy in detecting that words are correctly spelled [MacKay, Abrams, & Pedroza, 1999], the quality of narrative story telling [James, Burke, Austin, & Hulme, 1998;Kemper, Rash, Kynette, & Norman, 1990;Pratt & Robins, 1991], high-performance skills and problem-solving [Charness, 1981;Krampe & Ericsson, 1996], emotional reasoning [Blanchard-Fields, 1997], and emotional functioning more generally [Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Mayr, 1999]. Resource theories only address deficits, an approach that 'is no longer a viable option' according to a recent review [Burke, MacKay, & James, 2000, p. 230; see also Cerella, Rybash, Hoyer, & Commons, 1993].…”