Influence of age and processing stage on visual word recognition.

Abstract

The authors used a lexical-decision task in 3 different experiments to examine whether age differences in word recognition were consistent across processing stage. In all experiments, word frequency and length were manipulated. In Experiments 1 and 2, encoding difficulty was varied, and in Experiment 3, response selection difficulty was varied. In all 3 experiments, there were no age differences for word frequency. However, in Experiments 1 and 2, older adults showed a larger decrement for encoding. In Experiment 3, age differences were larger when response selection load increased. These results suggest that age differences in word recognition occur because older adults exhibit primarily peripheral-rather than central-processing decrements. The implications of these data for generalized and localized slowing models are discussed.

A Diffusion Model Analysis of the Effects of Aging in the Lexical-Decision Task.

“…This has been taken as evidence for a decrease in the speed of processing with age. This view has received much support (e.g., Birren, 1965;Cerella, 1985Cerella, , 1990Cerella, Poon, & Williams, 1980;Fisk & Warr, 1996;Salthouse, 1985Salthouse, , 1996Salthouse, Kausler, & Saults, 1988) and much criticism and debate (Allen, Ashcraft, & Weber, 1992;Allen et al, 1993;Cerella, 1994;Fisk & Fisher, 1994;Fisher & Glaser, 1996;Hartley, 1992;Hertzog, 1992;Lima et al, 1991;Madden, 1989;Madden, Pierce, & Allen, 1992;Myerson et al, 1992;Myerson, Wagstaff, & Hale, 1994;Perfect, 1994). Ratcliff, Spieler, and McKoon (2000) argued against this view from a theoretical perspective by showing that in the frameworks of explicit models, there are multiple ways that slowing in mean RT can be produced, such as changes in the rate of accumulation of evidence, decision criteria settings, or both.…”

“…For example, Allen, Madden, and Crozier (1991) found average RTs of 800 ms for older adults compared with 500 ms for young adults. Word frequency effects, longer RTs with lower frequency words, are also larger for older adults (see Allen et al, 1991;Allen, Madden, Weber, & Groth, 1993;Allen, Sliwinski, & Bowie, 2002;Lima, Hale, & Myerson, 1991).…”

“…For example, Allen, Madden, and Crozier (1991) found average RTs of 800 ms for older adults compared with 500 ms for young adults. Word frequency effects, longer RTs with lower frequency words, are also larger for older adults (see Allen et al, 1991;Allen, Madden, Weber, & Groth, 1993;Allen, Sliwinski, & Bowie, 2002;Lima, Hale, & Myerson, 1991).Recently, Ratcliff, Gomez, and McKoon (2004) have applied the diffusion model for twochoice decisions (Ratcliff, 1978(Ratcliff, , 1981(Ratcliff, , 1985(Ratcliff, , 1988(Ratcliff, , 2002Ratcliff & Rouder, 1998Ratcliff & Smith, 2004;Ratcliff, Van Zandt, & McKoon, 1999) to lexical-decision data. The model allows processing to be separated into several components: the rate at which information about the stimulus string of letters accumulates in the decision system (which reflects the goodness of match between the test string and lexical memory), the criteria that determine the amounts of information that must be accumulated before a decision can be made, nondecision…”

A diffusion model analysis of the effects of aging on letter discrimination.

“…The most dominant hypothesis has been the generalized slowing hypothesis, which states that all information processing is similarly affected by age (e.g., Birren, 1965;Brinley, 1965;Cerella, 1985Cerella, , 1990Cerella, , 1991Cerella, , 1994Fisk & Warr, 1996;Salthouse, 1985Salthouse, , 1996Salthouse, Kausler, & Saults, 1988). For some researchers, the general slowing hypothesis has been replaced by one that argues that different task domains show different degrees of slowing, for example, verbal versus spatial domains (see Allen, Ashcraft, & Weber, 1992;Allen, Madden, Weber, & Groth, 1993;Cerella, 1985Cerella, , 1994Hartley, 1992;Hertzog, 1992;Lima, Hale, & Myerson, 1991;Madden, 1989;Madden, Pierce, & Allen, 1992;Myerson, Ferraro, Hale, & Lima, 1992;Myerson, Wagstaff, & Hale, 1994;Perfect, 1994;Sliwinski & Hall, 1998). Whether general or domain specific, the slowing hypothesis has been favored by many cognitive aging researchers because it provides a relatively simple and intuitively appealing explanation of age-related decrements across a variety of laboratory tasks and everyday behaviors.…”

Endogenous visuospatial precuing effects as a function of age and task demands

“…Although the results of several studies indicate that older adults take significantly longer to recognize visually presented words than do younger adults (e.g., Allen, Madden, & Crozier, 1991;Bowles & Poon, 1981), Lima et al (1991) concluded that performance on lexical tasks (i.e., tasks utilizing words as stimuli) is less affected by age than is performance on nonlexical tasks. Allen et al (1993) reported that age differences in word recognition latencies may be due more to age decrements in peripheral processing stages rather than central processing stages. Using a lexical decision task, they found significant age differences for manipulations of stimulus encoding and response selection load but not PRECUING, AGE, AND TASK DEMANDS 949 for manipulations of word frequency, an index of lexical access.…”