title: Distance and Interference in the Reference Management of African American Adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of distance and interference on the adequacy of reference management in 2 contrasting narrative conditions among age-defined groups of healthy African American adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty middle-aged (M = 51 years) and 20 older (M = 72 years) women produced a complex story retelling and a personal narrative of a childhood experience. All narratives were transcribed orthographically, parsed into terminal units (T-units), and analyzed for surface structure markings of referents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results varied on the basis of task complexity and specific dependent variables. Older adults produced shorter T-unit distances between nouns and pronouns in story retelling compared with middle-aged adults. Middle-aged adults, but not older adults, exhibited longer T-unit distances between referents on story retelling than on personal narratives. Both groups performed similarly in the management of intervening information between referents. The presence of African American English features was related to interference but not to referential distance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older adults demonstrated an effective age-related strategy for simplifying complex story retelling by producing shorter T-unit distances and, thus, less intervening information between referents. These findings suggest that referential distance may be a more important factor in mediating story recall. (For a summary and guidelines for therapy, see Bunce, 1991.).
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bradford Wainwright
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Cannito
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior