The Role of Executive Functions in Object- and Action-Naming among Older Adults

Abstract

Background/Study Context: Lexical retrieval abilities and executive function skills decline with age. The extent to which these processes might be interdependent remains unknown. The aim of the current study was to examine whether individual differences in three executive functions (shifting, fluency, and inhibition) predicted naming performance in older adults. Methods:The sample included 264 adults aged 55-84. Six measures of executive functions were combined to make three executive function composites scores. Lexical retrieval performance was measured by accuracy and response time on two tasks: object naming and action naming. We conducted a series of multiple regressions to test whether executive function performance predicts naming abilities in older adults. Results:We found that different executive functions predicted naming speed and accuracy. Shifting predicted naming accuracy for both object and action naming while fluency predicted response times on both tests as well as object naming accuracy, after controlling for education, gender, age, working memory span, and speed of processing in all regressions. Interestingly, inhibition did not contribute to naming accuracy or response times on either task.

Demographic Effects on Longitudinal Semantic Processing, Working Memory, and Cognitive Speed

“…Moreover, during data collection, individuals’ years of education was truncated at 17 years (i.e., 17 or more years were coded as “17+”), which prevented us from analyzing education as a continuous factor. Another limitation is that a number of cognitive tasks were administered at the first evaluation but not at the second evaluation (additional tasks at first evaluation described in detail elsewhere; Higby et al, 2019 ), preventing longitudinal analyses of these domains. Future studies should include more cognitive measures to potentially derive more nuanced factors of cognition in addition to working memory and cognitive speed.…”

“…We included 306 healthy, community-dwelling adults aged 55–85 at baseline from the Language in the Aging Brain project, a prospective cohort designed to investigate the relations between cognition and language in aging and the influence of health on these relations ( Cahana-Amitay et al, 2016 ; Higby et al, 2019 ). Participant characteristics are presented in Table 1 .…”

“…Participant characteristics are presented in Table 1 . Recruitment was described in detail elsewhere ( Higby et al, 2019 ). All participants used English as their primary language and learned English before age 7.…”

“…As well, various studies have highlighted the effect of cognitive functions, such as processing speed and executive function, on semantic memory functioning (e.g., Cansino et al, 2020 ; Spaan, 2015 ). Among the different components of semantic memory functioning that have been identified are semantic control , that is, the ability to use semantic and grammatical information in the relevant context ( Badre and Wagner, 2007 ; Cahana-Amitay et al, 2016 ; Chiou et al, 2018 ; Hoffman, 2018 ; Jefferies and Lambon Ralph, 2006 ; Whitney et al, 2011 ), and semantic memory efficiency , that is, the ability to access information quickly from long-term memory ( Adrover-Roig et al, 2012 ; Fisk and Sharp, 2004 ; Higby et al, 2019 ).…”

Strategies and cognitive reserve to preserve lexical production in aging

“…As mentioned above, other non-linguistic or domaingeneral mechanisms can explain lexical production difficulties in older adults, typically a decline in executive functions [76,81,204], together with reduced processing speed or not [156]. The processing speed theory attributes cognitive decline to a decrease in information…”