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Updated: Mar 30, 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
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How older adults use cognition in sentence-final word recognition
Dalia Cahana-Amitay1,2, Avron Spiro3,4,2, Jesse T Sayers1,2
1a Department of Neurology , Boston University School of Medicine , Boston , MA , USA.
Summary
Older adults
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
Background:
- Executive functions, including working memory, are crucial for cognitive processes.
- Understanding how these functions impact speech comprehension in aging is important.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of executive control and working memory in sentence-final word recognition in older adults.
- To examine how speech predictability influences this relationship.
Main Methods:
- 173 neurologically intact adults (55-84 years) completed sentence-final word recognition tasks with varying context and noise levels.
- Participants underwent executive functioning tests (inhibition, shifting, memory access) and working memory assessments.
Main Results:
- Higher accuracy in word recognition correlated with better inhibition.
- Increased age and hearing loss were linked to decreased word recognition performance.
- Speech predictability modulated the relationship between executive functions and word recognition.
Conclusions:
- Inhibition is a key executive function for successful word recognition in older adults.
- Findings support a diverse model of executive control, emphasizing its components' functional roles in language processing.
- Age and hearing loss present significant challenges to auditory word recognition.
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