New age-linked asymmetries: aging and the processing of familiar versus novel language on the input versus output side.
This research demonstrates 3 new age-linked asymmetries between identifying versus retrieving phonological information. Young and older adults read aloud familiar isolated words (e.g., mind) and novel pseudowords (e.g., mond) in a production task and identified lexical status for identical stimuli in a comprehension task. Young adults made fewer errors than older adults in production but not comprehension (an age-related input-output asymmetry), and they produced pseudowords but not words with fewer errors than older adults (a lexical-status asymmetry). The lexical-status asymmetry also occurred for response onset times but not for output durations (an onset-output asymmetry). All 3 asymmetries were predicted under the transmission deficit hypothesis (D. G. MacKay & D. M. Burke, 1990) but contradict theories such as general slowing that cannot explain why aging affects some types of information processing more than others.
James
Lori E
LE
Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80933-7150, USA. ljames@uccs.edu
MacKay
Donald G
DG
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013067:Speech Perception