Age and context effects in lexical decision: an age by context interaction

The present experiment demonstrates greater priming effects in a lexical decision task for older adults than for younger adults. Thirty-six older adults and thirty-six younger adults participated in a lexical decision experiment in which primes were category names and related targets were category exemplars that varied in category dominance. This manipulation of category dominance was intended to limit the predictability of target words based on prime words. Results showed that older adults had significantly greater priming effects than did younger adults. This outcome represents a departure from most studies of age effects on priming in lexical decision. It is suggested that older adults make greater use of context than younger adults when the context is of limited predictive value.