TY - JOUR
T1 - Phonological and lexical-semantic short-term memory and their relationship to sentence production in older adults
AU - Miller, Michelle D.
AU - Johnson, Jeffrey S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by an Organized Research Grant from Northern Arizona University and by NIH grant DC-00218 to Rice University. The authors wish to thank Marisa Again, Candace Brown, Mike Purcell, Sarah Snow, and Patrina Yazzie for research assistance. Jeffrey S. Johnson is now at the Department of Psychology, University of Iowa.
PY - 2004/12
Y1 - 2004/12
N2 - Evidence from brain-damaged patients suggests a link between lexical-semantic retention capacity and sentence production. The present study seeks to establish whether lexical-semantic retention capacity changes with normal aging, and whether individual differences in this capacity predict the degree of increased difficulty older speakers have producing sentences with two-noun initial phrases, relative to those with one-noun initial phrases, elicited in a picture naming task. Older adults performed significantly better than younger adults on one of two tests of lexical-semantic retention, and performed similarly to younger adults on tests of phonological retention. Lexical-semantic capacity, but not phonological capacity, predicted the size of the initial phrase complexity effect in older adults. Results suggest that lexical-semantic retention ability is preserved in normal aging and does play a role in sentence production.
AB - Evidence from brain-damaged patients suggests a link between lexical-semantic retention capacity and sentence production. The present study seeks to establish whether lexical-semantic retention capacity changes with normal aging, and whether individual differences in this capacity predict the degree of increased difficulty older speakers have producing sentences with two-noun initial phrases, relative to those with one-noun initial phrases, elicited in a picture naming task. Older adults performed significantly better than younger adults on one of two tests of lexical-semantic retention, and performed similarly to younger adults on tests of phonological retention. Lexical-semantic capacity, but not phonological capacity, predicted the size of the initial phrase complexity effect in older adults. Results suggest that lexical-semantic retention ability is preserved in normal aging and does play a role in sentence production.
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U2 - 10.1080/13825580490521331
DO - 10.1080/13825580490521331
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:10644255682
SN - 1382-5585
VL - 11
SP - 395
EP - 415
JO - Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition
JF - Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition
IS - 4
ER -