Aging - Semantics - Discourse

Question 1

Radvansky, Curiel, Zwaan, & Copeland, 2001

Answer 1

• In a study in which older and younger adults were tested on their ability to retrieve information from texts, age-effects were found in the recall of surface form and text-based knowledge, but not in situational model information

Question 2

Radvansky, Copeland, & Zwaan, 2003

Answer 2

• Older adults demonstrate preserved use of situation models when reading narrative texts

Question 3

Arbuckle, Nohara-LeCLair, & Pushkar 2000

Answer 3

• In a referential communication task, higher age was associated with higher off-topic verbosity. This OTV, however, was not characterized by task-irrelevant fillers, but rather task-relevant but unnecessary additions (words/phrases to express uncertainty, redundant additions)

Question 4

Kemper, Thompson, & Marquis, 2001

Answer 4

• In a longitudinal study, age-related declines in propositional density in spoken responses to topics (questions required reflection) were observed in healthy older adults, and individuals with dementia

Question 5

Kemper, Granier, Marquis, Preovost, & Mitzner, 2001

Answer 5

• In a longitudinal study, idea density (average number of propositions per 10 words) declined with age in written autobiographical samples

Question 6

Mackenzie 2000

Answer 6

• In a picture description task, older adults (75+) conveyed information with reduced efficiency (word count relative to content unit count) than young or young-old (64-75) adults