The relationship between age, verbal working memory, and language comprehension.
A structural modeling approach was used to examine the relationships between age, verbal working memory (vWM), and 3 types of language measures: online syntactic processing, sentence comprehension, and text comprehension. The best-fit model for the online-processing measure revealed a direct effect of age on online sentence processing, but no effect mediated through vWM. The best-fit models for sentence and text comprehension included an effect of age mediated through vWM and no direct effect of age. These results indicate that the relationship among age, vWM, and comprehension differs depending on the measure of language processing and support the view that individual differences in vWM do not affect individuals' online syntactic processing.
DeDe
Gayle
G
Communication Disorders Program, Department of Health Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Caplan
David
D
Kemtes
Karen
K
Waters
Gloria
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D013067:Speech Perception; D014706:Verbal Learning