SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY AND ADULTS RUNNING MEMORY SPAN
SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY AND ADULTS RUNNING MEMORY SPAN
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DOI：
10.1093/geronj/46.6.p346
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发表时间：
1991-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
ANAGNOPOULOS, C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
NORMAN, S;KEMPER, S;ANAGNOPOULOS, C
这项研究调查了成年人散文运行记忆跨度的年龄组差异。 大学生和 60 岁至 94 岁的成年人聆听一段偶尔被停顿打断的散文。 每次停顿时，成年人都试图回忆起前面的文字。 停顿位于两个单分句句子、两个分句右分支句子或两个分句左分支句子之后。 年龄组 x 句法形式 x 子句顺序之间存在显着的交互作用，因此句法复杂性的影响加剧了逐字记忆中年龄组的差异。 与大学生相比，老年人回忆起左分支句子的第一个嵌入子句中的单词少了 25%，而他们回忆起的两个连续单从句中的第一个句子中的单词仅少了 4%。 运行记忆跨度任务的表现也与成年人工作记忆的两个指标相关：向前数字跨度和向后数字跨度。 相关性模式表明，工作记忆的限制决定了成年人对散文的运行记忆范围，并导致年龄组的理解能力缺陷。
This study investigated age group differences in adults' running memory span for prose. College students and adults 60 to 94 years of age listened to a prose passage that was interrupted occasionally by pauses. At each pause, the adults attempted to recall the immediately preceding text. The pauses followed either two single-clause sentences, a two-clause right-branching sentence, or a two-clause left-branching sentence. There was a significant Age Group x Syntactic Form x Clause Order interaction such that the age group differences in verbatim recall were exacerbated by the effects of syntactic complexity. The elderly recalled 25% fewer words from the first embedded clause of the left-branching sentences than the college students, whereas they recalled only 4% fewer words from the first of two successive single-clause sentences. Performance on the running memory span task was also correlated with two measures of the adults' working memory: forward digit span and backward digit span. The pattern of correlations indicated that working memory limitations determine adults' running memory span for prose and contribute to age-group deficits in comprehension.