Age-Related Changes in Processing Explicit and Implicit Language

Abstract

After reading short prose passages, older (M = 66.5 years) and younger (M = 18.3 years) adults verified the meaning of a test sentence which represented either a paraphrase or an inference from the preceding passage. There were no age differences in accuracy of verification performance with immediate testing, but older subjects made significantly more errors on a delayed test. Verification latency was longer for inference than paraphrase test sentences for both age groups, and older subjects were slower than younger for both types of information. There was no evidence for a selective deficit in processing implicit versus explicit meaning. It was concluded that older persons may be deficient in the retention of meaningful information, but that this deficit is not based on an inability to comprehend linguistic meaning.

The Use of Contextual Information by Right Brain-Damaged Individuals in the Resolution of Ambiguous Pronouns

“…Furthermore, these results are in agreement with the current view that older adults are capable of using contextual information and making inferences for language processing (Belmore, 1981;Burke & Yee, 1984;Light et al, 1982;Light & Albertson, 1988;Light and Capps, 1986;Till, 1985;Zacks & Hasher, 1988;Zelinski & Miura, 1990) when the demands placed upon working memory are minimal.…”

On Missing Links and Such: Interfaces between Cognitive Research and Everyday Problem-Solving

“…To the extent that the 'easy' sentences initiated inferential processing similar to that induced by pre vious researchers and found in most language comprehension tasks, this outcome was not surprising. However, the number of 'easy' sentences recalled was related to age level, with older adults remembering fewer such sentences than younger adults; this paralleled the results of Belmore [1981] and Light et al [1982]. Finally, age was again not related to the number of aha sentences recalled.…”

Language and aging

“…In the same vein, Cohen [47] found that older subjects were less accurate than younger subjects on various measures of language comprehension for short texts, including a measure for verification of inferences. However, Belmore [13] found no significant differences between young and old subjects in ability for processing implicit or inferential language.…”