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General slowing in semantic priming and word recognition.
J Myerson1, F R Ferraro, S Hale
1Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130.
Psychology and Aging
|June 1, 1992
Summary
Older adults exhibit a general slowing factor of approximately 1.5 in lexical information processing compared to younger adults, affecting both word recognition and semantic priming.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Aging Research
Background:
- Investigating age-related cognitive changes is crucial for understanding cognitive decline.
- Lexical decision and word-naming tasks are standard measures of cognitive processing speed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify the age-related slowing in lexical information processing.
- To determine if slowing affects different components of word recognition uniformly.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of lexical decision tasks comparing older and younger adults' semantic priming effects.
- Analysis of word-naming tasks to assess processing speed.
- Examination of delayed pronunciation data to differentiate recognition and output processes.
Main Results:
- Older adults showed a 1.44 times larger semantic priming effect than younger adults.
- A consistent slowing factor of approximately 1.5 was observed across lexical tasks and component processes.
- Word recognition was 1.47 times slower in older adults, while output processes were 1.26 times slower.
Conclusions:
- A general slowing factor of about 1.5 characterizes lexical information processing in older adults.
- This slowing appears to affect recognition processes more than output processes.
- Findings suggest a pervasive age-related decline in cognitive processing speed.
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