Visual word encoding and the effect of adult age and word frequency

Allen, Philip A.; Madden, David J.; Slane, Steve

doi:10.1016/s0166-4115(06)80065-8

Cited by 29 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 145 publications

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“…So what can account for the differences in speed of information uptake in the present study? Usually it is assumed that life-long exposure to text gives older adults a natural advantage in vocabulary knowledge (Allen et al, 1995; Verhaeghen, 2003). This should in turn lead to a larger and better organized orthographic lexicon and likely to higher drift rates in older compared to younger adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drifting through Basic Subprocesses of Reading: A Hierarchical Diffusion Model Analysis of Age Effects on Visual Word Recognition

et al. 2016

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Reading is one of the most popular leisure activities and it is routinely performed by most individuals even in old age. Successful reading enables older people to master and actively participate in everyday life and maintain functional independence. Yet, reading comprises a multitude of subprocesses and it is undoubtedly one of the most complex accomplishments of the human brain. Not surprisingly, findings of age-related effects on word recognition and reading have been partly contradictory and are often confined to only one of four central reading subprocesses, i.e., sublexical, orthographic, phonological and lexico-semantic processing. The aim of the present study was therefore to systematically investigate the impact of age on each of these subprocesses. A total of 1,807 participants (young, N = 384; old, N = 1,423) performed four decision tasks specifically designed to tap one of the subprocesses. To account for the behavioral heterogeneity in older adults, this subsample was split into high and low performing readers. Data were analyzed using a hierarchical diffusion modeling approach, which provides more information than standard response time/accuracy analyses. Taking into account incorrect and correct response times, their distributions and accuracy data, hierarchical diffusion modeling allowed us to differentiate between age-related changes in decision threshold, non-decision time and the speed of information uptake. We observed longer non-decision times for older adults and a more conservative decision threshold. More importantly, high-performing older readers outperformed younger adults at the speed of information uptake in orthographic and lexico-semantic processing, whereas a general age-disadvantage was observed at the sublexical and phonological levels. Low-performing older readers were slowest in information uptake in all four subprocesses. Discussing these results in terms of computational models of word recognition, we propose age-related disadvantages for older readers to be caused by inefficiencies in temporal sampling and activation and/or inhibition processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drifting through Basic Subprocesses of Reading: A Hierarchical Diffusion Model Analysis of Age Effects on Visual Word Recognition

et al. 2016

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“…This possibility is consistent with previous behavioral results suggesting that orthographic processes are more affected by aging than lexical--semantic processes. For example, degrading stimulus quality increases RT more in older adults than younger adults, whereas the effects of varying word frequency remain relatively consistent in aging (Madden 1988;Allen et al 1995). In addition, at the functional neuroanatomic level, extrastriate regions showing greater activation in the young group have been associated with orthographic processes (Petersen et al 1990;Cohen et al 2003;Binder et al 2003Binder et al , 2006.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging Influences the Neural Correlates of Lexical Decision but Not Automatic Semantic Priming

et al. 2009

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Human behavioral data indicate that older adults are slower to perform lexical decisions (LDs) than young adults but show similar reaction time gains when these decisions are primed semantically. The present study explored the functional neuroanatomic bases of these frequently observed behavioral findings. Young and older groups completed unprimed and primed LD tasks while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was recorded, using a fully randomized trial design paralleling those used in behavioral research. Results from the unprimed task found that age-related slowing of LD was associated with decreased activation in perceptual extrastriate regions and increased activation in regions associated with higher level linguistic processes, including prefrontal cortex. In contrast to these age-related changes in brain activation, the older group showed a preserved pattern of fMRI decreases in inferior temporal cortex when LD was primed semantically. These findings provide evidence that older adults' LD abilities benefit from contexts that reduce the need for frontally mediated strategic processes and capitalize on the continued sensitivity of inferior temporal cortex to automatic semantic processes in aging.

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“…In studies of visual lexical decision, frequency effects have been reported to be equally large in older and younger groups (Allen, Madden, & Crozier, 1991;Allen, Madden, Weber, & Groth, 1993;Bowles & Poon, 1981), or even larger in the old than in the young (Balota & Ferraro, 1996;Spieler & Balota, 2000). There have been very few investigations of age and frequency effects in word naming: A study cited by Allen, Madden, and Slane (1995) found that frequency effects are equally large in young and old (see also Allen et al, 1994). In contrast, Balota and Ferraro (1993) and Spieler and Balota (2000) reported slightly larger AOA AND CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY 439 frequency effects in word naming speed in their older participants than in their young participants.…”

Section: Experiments 1a and 1bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age and age of acquisition: An evaluation of the cumulative frequency hypothesis

Morrison¹,

Hirsh²,

Chappell³

et al. 2002

European Journal of Cognitive Psychology

101

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Visual word encoding and the effect of adult age and word frequency

Cited by 29 publications

References 145 publications

Drifting through Basic Subprocesses of Reading: A Hierarchical Diffusion Model Analysis of Age Effects on Visual Word Recognition

Drifting through Basic Subprocesses of Reading: A Hierarchical Diffusion Model Analysis of Age Effects on Visual Word Recognition

Aging Influences the Neural Correlates of Lexical Decision but Not Automatic Semantic Priming

Age and age of acquisition: An evaluation of the cumulative frequency hypothesis

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