Aging, Retrograde Amnesia, and the Binding Problem for Phonology and Orthography: A Longitudinal Study of “Hippocampal Amnesic” H.M.

Aging, memory, and language in amnesic H.M.

“…For example, a regular past-tense suffix (e.g., talk-talked) was the correct response on 64 trials in the past-tense experiment of Kensinger et al Because binding theory does not predict deficits for familiar and massively repeated information, the results of Kensinger et al are consistent with binding theory and the results of MacKay et al, in which massive repetition was not a factor. For example, H.M. generated significantly more morphological errors than did age-matched controls for words containing unpredictable suffixes presented without repetition across trials in MacKay and James, , 2002. Similarly, six experiments by MacKay et al (in press) showed with appropriate procedures that H.M. exhibits selective syntax-level comprehension deficits that are consistent with the results of Kensinger et al and with binding theory.…”

“…The analyses of Kensinger et al (2001) indicate no reliable decline relative to age norms in H.M.'s performance from 1953 to 2000 on the vocabulary, information, similarities, and interpretation subtests. On the surface, this finding seems to contradict both binding theory and the extensive evidence indicating exaggerated age-linked declines in H.M.'s ability to process LF words MacKay and James, 2002). However, four procedural factors render this surface appearance deceptive.…”

“…Note however, that none of these problems apply to the results of James and MacKay (2001), in which H.M. exhibited no agelinked declines relative to age-matched controls in comprehending HF words in lexical decision tasks administered in 1983 and 1997-1999, but highly significant and exaggerated agelinked declines in comprehending LF words (see also MacKay and James, 2002).…”

“…However, all three claims of Kensinger et al (2001) are in conflict with other evidence indicating that: (1) H.M. exhibits recent deficits in processing low-frequency (LF) words James, 2001, 2002); (2) from 1983 to 1997, H.M. exhibited exaggerated age-linked declines in processing LF words that he knew and used correctly in 1970 James, 2001, 2002); (3) H.M. exhibited syntax-level processing deficits in more than 30 sources of evidence from 1967-1973(Lackner, 1974MacKay, Burke, and Stewart, 1998a;MacKay, Stewart, and Burke, 1998b) to 1997-1999, 2002MacKay, James, Taylor, and Marian, in press).…”

New age-linked asymmetries: Aging and the processing of familiar versus novel language on the input versus output side.

“…Producing wrike as a monosyllabic unit therefore entails the formation of new top-down connections, a process that requires robust priming for prolonged periods, unlike activation via already formed connections (see MacKay & Burke, 1990). This prolonged activation process for new connection formation is relatively slow, a slowness reflected in the time between stimulus presentation and production onset in speeded pronunciation tasks: Never previously encountered pseudowords exhibit longer production onset times than familiar words with already formed top-down connections (e.g., MacKay & James, 2002). Under TDH, this difference in production onset time for words versus pseudowords will be exaggerated in older adults because age-linked transmission deficits entail further prolongation of activation when forming top-down connections for producing pseudowords (MacKay & Burke, 1990).…”