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Influence of age and processing stage on visual word recognition
P A Allen1, D J Madden, T A Weber
1Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, Ohio 44115.
Psychology and Aging
|June 1, 1993
Summary
Older adults show age-related word recognition declines primarily due to peripheral processing, not central processing, impacting encoding and response selection differently across tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Aging Research
Background:
- Word recognition abilities can decline with age.
- Understanding age-related cognitive processing differences is crucial for gerontology and cognitive science.
- Previous research suggests age impacts various cognitive stages, but consistency across stages is debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if age differences in word recognition are consistent across different processing stages.
- To determine the specific processing stages (encoding vs. response selection) most affected by aging.
- To test the implications of findings for generalized and localized cognitive slowing models.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a lexical-decision task across three experiments.
- Manipulated word frequency and length in all experiments.
- Varied encoding difficulty in Experiments 1 and 2, and response selection difficulty in Experiment 3.
Main Results:
- No age differences were observed concerning word frequency effects.
- Older adults demonstrated greater decrements in encoding difficulty (Experiments 1 & 2).
- Age differences were more pronounced with increased response selection load (Experiment 3).
Conclusions:
- Age-related decrements in word recognition are primarily linked to peripheral processing, not central processing.
- Findings support localized slowing models over generalized slowing models of cognitive aging.
- Specific processing stages, like encoding and response selection, are differentially affected by aging.