Influence of Imageability on Visual Word Recognition in Young and Older Adults

Imageability, the ease with which a word evokes a mental image, is known to facilitate word processing in young adults. Both imageability ratings and vocabulary increase with participants' age, and semantics are thought to play an important role in lexical processing in normal aging. Yet, word processing research has rarely included older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate age-related changes in the imageability effect in visual word recognition, along with its relationship with vocabulary. In total, 47 young adults and 47 older adults performed a lexical decision task. The materials included 50 high and 50 low imageability words. We assessed vocabulary using the LexTale. Additionally, we controlled for mental imagery vividness and alexithymia. In line with the literature, imageability and vocabulary positively predicted performance in the lexical decision task. Importantly, response times revealed that age modulated the facilitatory imageability effect, with older adults showing an increased benefit from high imageability compared to younger adults. This effect did not change reliably according to the vocabulary level of the participants. The data suggests that older adults rely more on word imageability in visual word recognition than younger ones, possibly due to compensatory mechanisms. The increased reliance on imageability in older adults brings new evidence of the involvement of sensorimotor representations in facilitating lexical access. Our results highlight the importance of considering individual characteristics such as participants' age when investigating lexico-semantic processing.