title: Age-Related Increases in Verbal Knowledge Are Not Associated With Word Finding Problems in the Cam-CAN Cohort: What You Know Won't Hurt You.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We tested the claim that age-related increases in knowledge interfere with word retrieval, leading to word finding failures. We did this by relating a measure of crystallized intelligence to tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states and picture naming accuracy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were from a large (N = 708), cross-sectional (aged 18-88 years), population-based sample from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort (Cam-CAN; www.cam-can.com). They completed (a) the Spot-the-Word Test (STW), a measure of crystallized intelligence in which participants circled the real word in word/nonword pairs, (b) a TOT-inducing task, and (c) a picture naming task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Age and STW independently predicted TOTs, with higher TOTs for older adults and for participants with lower STW scores. Tests of a moderator model examining interactions between STW and age indicated that STW was a significant negative predictor of TOTs in younger adults, but with increasing age, the effect size gradually approached zero. Results using picture naming accuracy replicated these findings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results do not support the hypothesis that lifelong knowledge acquisition leads to interference that causes an age-related increase in TOTs. Instead, crystallized intelligence supports successful word retrieval, although this relationship weakens across adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK. mshafto@csl.psychol.cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Meredith A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Shafto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
authors.forename: Lori E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: James
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
authors.forename: Lise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Abrams
authors.affiliation: Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Lorraine K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Tyler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000066492:Cognitive Aging; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010700:Phonetics; D011594:Psychometrics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Interference; Knowledge; Naming; Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT); Word retrieval