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Updated: Jul 17, 2026
06:48
Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
Lexical competition and phonological encoding in young and older speakers
Susan LaGrone1, Daniel H Spieler
1School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. lagrone@gatech.edu
Psychology and Aging
|January 5, 2007
Summary
Older adults show increased sensitivity to word agreement during picture naming tasks. This suggests lexical selection, a language production stage, is particularly affected by aging.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Word retrieval difficulties can arise with age.
- Understanding age-related changes in language production is crucial for cognitive health.
- Lexical selection is a key component of spoken word production.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of age on word retrieval processes.
- To determine how name agreement and name frequency influence picture naming in different age groups.
- To identify age-sensitive stages in language production.
Main Methods:
- A speeded picture naming task was employed.
- 541 pictures were presented to both young and older adult participants.
- Multiple regression analysis was used to assess the influence of name agreement and frequency.
Main Results:
- Both name agreement and name frequency significantly predicted picture naming performance across all participants.
- Older adults demonstrated a stronger influence of name agreement compared to younger adults.
- Age-related differences were observed in the lexical selection stage.
Conclusions:
- Lexical selection is a critical and potentially age-sensitive stage in language production.
- Older adults may experience heightened competition during word retrieval due to name agreement.
- These findings contribute to understanding cognitive aging and language processing.
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