title: Global coherence in younger and older adults: Influence of cognitive processes and discourse type.
abstract: The purpose of the present research was to examine the influence of cognitive processes on discourse global coherence ability measured across different discourse tasks and collected from younger (n = 40; 20-39 years) and older (n = 40; 70-87 years) cognitively healthy adults. Study participants produced oral language samples in response to five commonly used discourse elicitation tasks and they were analyzed for maintenance of global coherence. Participants also completed memory and attention measures. Group differences on the global coherence scale were found for only one type of discourse-recounts. Across discourse elicitation tasks the lowest global coherence scores were found for recounts compared to the other discourse elicitation tasks. The influence of cognitive processes on maintenance of global coherence differed for the two age groups. For the younger group, there were no observed significant relationships. For the older group, cognitive measures were related to global coherence of stories and procedures.
authors: a Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders , East Carolina University , Greenville , NC , USA.
authors: Heather Harris
authors: HH
authors: Wright
authors: Anthony D
authors: AD
authors: Koutsoftas
authors: Gilson J
authors: GJ
authors: Capilouto
authors: Gerasimos
authors: G
authors: Fergadiotis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D033262:Narration; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057190:Stroop Test; D014145:Trail Making Test; D014888:Wechsler Scales; D055815:Young Adult
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