Aging and implementation of encoding strategies in the generation of rhymes: the role of executive functions.
This experiment examines whether the age-related decrease in the generation effect of rhymes is mediated by executive functioning. Young and elderly adults read and generated pairs of rhyming words for subsequent recall. Participants were also administered neuropsychological tests (executive and mnemonic functions). Results showed that elderly adults performed less well on the neuropsychological tests and benefited less than the younger participants from the generation effect. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the executive functions composite score was correlated with the generation effect and that it accounted for a large proportion of the age-related variance of the size of this measure. This finding supports the view that the age-related decrement in strategic encoding implementation is due to a decrease of executive functioning.
Taconnat
Laurence
L
UMR-CNRS 6215: Langage, Memoire et Developpement Cognitif and IFR 135/Imagerie Fonctionnelle, Departement de Psychologie, Universite Francois-Rabelais, Tours, France. taconnat@univ-tours.fr
Baudouin
Alexia
A
Fay
Séverine
S
Clarys
David
D
Vanneste
Sandrine
S
Tournelle
Lydia
L
Isingrini
Michel
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*