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"Older is always better": Age-related differences in vocabulary scores across 16 years
Boaz M Ben-David1, Hadas Erel1, Huiwen Goy2
1Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.
Abstract:
Cross-sectional studies of cognitive aging compare age groups at 1 time point. It is unclear from such studies whether age-related cognitive differences remain stable across time. We present a cross-sectional investigation of vocabulary scores of 2,000 younger and older adults collected across 16 years, using the same laboratory and protocol. We found a steady decrease with year of testing and an advantage for older adults. An additive relation between age group and year of testing implied that age-related differences in vocabulary are independent of changes over time, suggesting that younger and older adults are similarly affected by changes in word usage.
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