Young adult, geriatric and aphasic group responses to simple analogies

The efficiency of interactive language processing was compared in three groups: 25 young adults, 25 geriatric subjects, and 25 adult aphasic subjects. The task involved simple analogy completion. Data analysis included six categories of responses which represetned levels of convergence toward the expected relationships. Results of chi-square comparisons between groups were all significant, and indicated substantial reductions in interactive processing for geriatric subjects. The findings suggest that a general aging factor may contribute to the poor prognosis in elderly aphasic patients.