Semantic Interference Effect in Picture-Word Naming Tasks between Youth and Elderly

Objectives: There is considerable controversy with respect to language processing in the elderly. The purpose of the study was to investigate age-related differences in word recognition tasks according to interference types with Eye-tracker. Methods: A total of 46 participants (24 young and 22 elderly adults) participated in the study. A word recognition task and an online eye-tracking analysis were used. The stimuli consisted of 80 Korean nouns with four types: target, phonologically related objects to the target, semantically related objects to the target, and unrelated objects. Each critical trial display included four types. Participants were asked to select one of the pictures after the target was auditorily presented. Results: The elderly group had lower accuracy and slower reaction time than the young group. There were significant interactions between the group and time-window. The young group fixated the target longer than the elderly group in the time window of 1,000-1,800 ms. According to the proportion data of the interference type, there were significant interactions between types and time-window. Both groups fixated the phonologically related picture longer than semantically related picture or unrelated picture in 1,000-1,400 ms time-window. Conclusion: Elderly adults demonstrated delayed processing when compared with younger adults, whereas age-group differences did not emerge as a function of the interference types. There was aging-related decline in online processing of the word recognition abilities, but differential effects by the interference types did not efficiently discriminate the groups, indicating that their online processing abilities to inhibit phonologically and semantically related foils may be intact, although elderly adults suffered from slowed processing.

Section: 단어 이름대기 과제에서 젊은 연령층에 비해 노년층이 정확성과mentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Differences in Word Recognition Task according to the Interference Types: Evidence from Eye-Tracking

Johyelyun¹,

Sung²

2019

Word Retrieval, Attention, and Inhibition under the Interference Condition for the 3rd–4th Grade Students with Specific Language Impairment

Jang¹,

Kim²

2019

This work is based on the master's thesis of the first author. Objectives: This study was conducted to examine word retrieval in children with specific language impairment (SLI) under the interference condition; which is known to place a high burden on verbal processing. This study investigated whether reduced word retrieval can be explained in the aspect of attention and inhibition deficiency. Methods: The participants were a total of 30 elementary school students in 3rd-4th grades, including 15 children with SLI and 15 typically developing (TD) children. A word retrieval task under an interference condition, an attention task (rapid automatized naming, RAN), a nonverbal inhibition task (Go-No-Go task), and a verbal inhibition task (STROOP Color and Word Test) were used as the experimental tasks. Accuracy, response time of word retrieval under the interference conditions, attention, and nonverbal and verbal inhibition abilities between groups were compared. Results: The children with SLI had significantly longer response time in word retrieval under the interference condition. Error analysis results showed difficulty in inhibiting unrelated words as well as interference words. Also, color RAN, object RAN and verbal inhibition, which required high levels of attention and language processing, were significantly lower than those of normal children. In the SLI group, the word retrieval response time showed a significant correlation with the response time of color and object RAN. Conclusion: Children with SLI showed a limitation in inhibiting interference stimuli and paying attention to target stimuli for semantic processing. Therefore, when treating vocabulary learning and word retrieval in children with SLI, a cognitive approach should be considered.

Age-related Differences in the Effects of Working Memory Capacity and Cognitive Load on Word Recognition: An Eye Tracking Study

Yoo¹,

Oh²,

Kyong³

et al. 2021

The purpose of the study was to identify the impact of age-related working memory capacity and cognitive load to word recognition using an eye tracker. Methods: A total of 48 participants (24 young, 24 elderly adults) who were divided according to working memory capacity (high, low) participated in the study. This study consisted of a digit load and word recognition task. Results: First, the elderly group had lower accuracy and slower response times than the young group. There was a significant difference between working memory capacity and cognitive load in response time. In the group with low working memory capacity, the response time increased under lower cognitive load, which was different from the group with a high working memory capacity. Next, the elderly group had a lower proportion of fixation than the young group by time interval. In addition, there was a significant interaction between group and cognitive load by time interval. In particular, the proportion of fixation decreased over time under a high cognitive load while the proportion of fixation increased under a low cognitive load in the elders, because the inhibition and switching abilities were weakened which made the elders unable to process information efficiently. Conclusion: The study results showed significant effects between working memory capacity and cognitive load in response time and proportion of fixation. This implies that complex factors influence language processing, which makes measuring accuracy insufficient. Thus, this research confirms the correlation among aging, working memory, and cognitive load through both online and offline measurement.