title: TOT phenomena: Gesture production in younger and older adults.
abstract: This study explored age-related changes in gesture to better understand the relationship between gesture and word retrieval from memory. The frequency of gestures during tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states highlights this relationship. There is a lack of evidence describing the form and content of iconic gestures arising spontaneously in such TOT states and a parallel gap addressing age-related variations. In this study, TOT states were induced in 45 participants from 2 age groups (older and younger adults) using a pseudoword paradigm. The type and frequency of gestures produced was recorded during 2 experimental conditions (single-word retrieval and narrative task). We found that both groups experienced a high number of TOT states, during which they gestured. Iconic co-TOT gestures were more common than noniconic gestures. Although there was no age effect on the type of gestures produced, there was a significant, task-specific age difference in the amount of gesturing. That is, younger adults gestured more in the narrative task, whereas older adults generated more gestures in the single-word-retrieval task. Task-specific age differences suggest that there are age-related differences in terms of the cognitive operations involved in TOT gesture production.
authors.affiliation: Division of Language and Communication Science.
authors.forename: Foteini
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Theocharopoulou
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cocks
authors.affiliation: Division of Language and Communication Science.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pring
authors.affiliation: Division of Language and Communication Science.
authors.forename: Lucy T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Dipper
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D033262:Narration; D055815:Young Adult