The origins of age of acquisition and typicality effects: Semantic processing in aphasia and the ageing brain.
Age of acquisition (AOA) has frequently been shown to influence response times and accuracy rates in word processing and constitutes a meaningful variable in aphasic language processing, while its origin in the language processing system is still under debate. To find out where AOA originates and whether and how it is related to another important psycholinguistic variable, namely semantic typicality (TYP), we studied healthy, elderly controls and semantically impaired individuals using semantic priming. For this purpose, we collected reaction times and accuracy rates as well as event-related potential data in an auditory category-member-verification task. The present results confirm a semantic origin of TYP, but question the same for AOA while favouring its origin at the phonology-semantics interface. The data are further interpreted in consideration of recent theories of ageing.
Cognitive Sciences, Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. Electronic address: romy.raeling@uni-potsdam.de.
Romy
R
Räling
Cognitive Sciences, Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany; Duden Institute für Lerntherapie, Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: schroeder@duden-institute.de.
Astrid
A
Schröder
Cognitive Sciences, Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. Electronic address: isabell.wartenburger@uni-potsdam.de.
Isabell
I
Wartenburger
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001037:Aphasia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics
Age of acquisition; Ageing; Aphasia; N400; Semantic typicality