Characteristics of Language Comprehension in Normal Elderly and the Mild Cognitive Impaired

This article is based on a part of the first author's Master thesis. Objectives:The purpose of this study was to investigate age-related differences according to frequency of words and use of phonological rules in the Korean word recognition process between younger and elderly groups through Event-Related Potentials (ERP) analysis. Methods: A total of 35 participants participated in this experiment. They were asked to judge whether the pronunciation of visual words was identical to the corresponding auditory words. Behavioral data and electrophysiological data were collected. Results: Behavioral results revealed that the elderly group showed significantly lower accuracy and longer response time than the younger group. ERP analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in the 150-300 ms range. However, for the younger group, the N400 component was observed in the 300-500 ms range regardless of word frequency when the phonological rule was not applied and was more apparent under the low word frequency condition. The topographic patterns of the grand average ERP waveforms for the elderly group showed that the N400 component appeared only under high word frequency when the phonological rule was not applied. However, when the phonological rule was applied, the N400 component was observed only under the condition of low word frequency. Conclusion: Differences in the pattern of applying phonological rules associated with word frequency were found between groups. The current study indicates that word frequency and aging may affect the ability to apply phonological rules. The result of age-related differences in ERP analysis reflects a decline in the simultaneous neural processing of phonological and semantic information.

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Age-Related Differences in Korean Word Recognition Associated with Phonological Rules and Word Frequency: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Study

Kang¹,

Sim

2021

“…노인의 담화 이해 • 송제호 외 화 참여의 어려움, 청각적 지시 따르기의 곤란, 질문을 확인하기 위 한 반복 질문, 대화 주제 변화에 따른 이해의 어려움 등에 문제가 있 다고 보고하였다 (Burda, 2010). 일반 노인을 대상으로 한 담화이해 연구들을 살펴보면 60대에서는 담화이해 능력이 비교적 양호하나 70대 이상에서 저하가 나타나며 (Lee, Lee, Song, & Kim, 2014), 특 히, 청각적 처리과정의 지연(delay)이 담화이해의 어려움으로 작용 하는 것으로 알려져 있다 (Little, Prentice, Darrow, & Wingfield, 2005).…”

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Effects of Stimulus Presentation Method on Discourse Comprehension in Healthy Elderly Adults

Song¹,

Choi²

2020

This work is based on the master's thesis of the first author. Objectives: Although the ability of discourse comprehension in the elderly may vary depending on the method of stimulus presentation, relevant research into this topic is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in ability of discourse comprehension in healthy elderly adults according to the discourse stimulus presentation method, and to determine whether the effects of the discourse stimulus presentation method are different depending on the question type; for example literal information or inference. Methods: Forty-eight healthy elderly adults participated in this study. To examine the ability of discourse comprehension, a recall task was used to listen to the story and answer the questions. As methods of presenting discourse stimulus, telling a story once, telling it twice, and presenting it with a picture were used. The question types consisted of the literal information (LI), text-connecting inference (TC) and gap-filling inference (GF) types. Results: First, the discourse comprehension scores were higher in telling a story twice and presenting it with a picture than in telling a story once. Second, performance of LI was the highest in telling a story twice, while performance of TC was the highest in presenting story with a picture. Third, in the case of GF, the difference in ability of discourse comprehension according to the stimulus presentation method was not significant. Conclusion: These results suggest that it is more effective to present the discourse repeatedly to improve the superficial comprehension of discourse for the healthy elderly, and visual stimulus to improve logical reasoning for connection and integration between texts.

“…초기 읽기 단계에서는 인쇄 된 글자와 음운의 관계를 상징화하는데 특히 이 시기에는 읽기능 력 발달과 밀접하게 관련된 음운인식능력이 출현하고 빠르게 획득 된다 (Kim & Pae, 2012). 음운인식이란, 단어는 음절과 음소로 이루 어진 소리 구조라는 지식을 의미하는데 이는 읽기능력과 가장 정 적 상관관계가 높다고 알려져 있다(Hong, Jeon, Pae, & Lee, 2002 (Chall, 1983) (Lee, Lee, Song, & Kim, 2014 (Yi, 1996;Park, 1993) (Cho & Pyun, 2015;Kim, 2017) (Raz & Kennedy, 2009;Reisberg et al, 1999Reisberg et al, , 2002 Qualls & Harris, 2003;Treitz, Heyder, & Daum, 2007).…”

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Characteristics of Word Reading according to Word Condition in Normal Adults

Yeon¹,

Cho²,

Lee³

et al. 2017

Self Cite

20s to 80s, considering phonological and lexical routes of reading. Methods: This study classified 120 normal adults into a younger group (20-39 years), middle-age group (40-59 years), and older group (60-89 years), and conducted a reading aloud task under various conditions. Results: The performance of the older group decreased in irregular words and regular nonwords compared to the younger (p < .001) and middle age (p = .001) groups. For irregular nonwords, performance of the older group decreased compared to the younger group (p = .002). Conclusion: The results show that lexical routes for reading irregular words with graphemes and phonemes not corresponding to each other are affected by aging. This signifies that the cognitive load for reading irregular nonwords grows with age; these nonwords should be read by borrowing phonological changes in words with similar phonological conditions through phonological and lexical routes. To sum up, declines in language ability and cognitive functioning and reduced attention during the normal aging process can affect the ability to use information through lexical routes, and reading that requires complex cognitive processing is more affected by aging.