The effects of cognitive changes across the adult lifespan on lexical and grammatical processing

成人一生中认知变化对词汇和语法处理的影响

• 批准号: 411781424
• 负责人: Dr. Jana Reifegerste
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Georgetown University
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/411781424?language=en
• 关键词: effects; cognitive; changes; across; adult

Life expectancy has risen dramatically in the last century, increasing many age-related challenges, which include changes to cognition. However, while the effects of aging on some aspects of cognition (e.g., processing speed, declarative memory) are quite well-studied, much less is known about age-related changes in the critical capacity of language and whether there is a relation between age-related changes in non-linguistic cognition and changes in language processing.The proposed project investigates the developmental trajectory of language processing in participants between the ages of 20 and 90 years. Using a cross-sectional within-participants design, I will examine the production and comprehension of morphologically simple and complex words and relate those findings to results from cognitive tasks (processing speed, memory). Morphological processing has been argued to involve both grammatical processing (regular/default forms) and lexical processing (irregular/non-default forms). For this reason, morphologically complex words make for a particularly good test case as they allow for the study of aging effects on different mechanisms of language processing.Work package (WP) 1 examines the comprehension and production of plural nouns using elicited production and cross-modal priming. Of particular interest is the (expected) contrast between default and non-default plurals, and whether aging affects the processing of these different plural types differently. WP 2 assesses how aging affects speakers’ production and comprehension of morphologically simple words using picture naming and lexical-decision tasks. This way, we can assess whether aging affects the processing of complex and of simple words in a similar manner, particularly regarding the onset of changes and the trajectory throughout life.Work Package 3 investigates how the effects of aging on language processing found in WPs 1 and 2 can be tied to age-related changes in non-linguistic cognition, with a focus on general processing speed and the two main learning-and-memory systems, declarative and procedural memory. Specifically, the results from this WP will address the question of whether aging exhibits global effects on language processing (i.e., on lexical and grammatical processes alike), or whether the effects are more selective, with some aspects of processing being more greatly affected than others.Besides the main goal – revealing how aging affects language –, this study should also help provide insights about aging (independent of language) and insights about language (independent of aging). The research may also have translational impacts as the findings may provide as baseline for the study of age-related disorders affecting language (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease).

在上个世纪，预期寿命大幅增加，增加了许多与年龄相关的挑战，其中包括认知方面的变化。然而，尽管衰老对认知的某些方面(如加工速度、陈述性记忆)的影响已经得到了很好的研究，但关于语言临界能力的年龄相关变化以及非语言认知的年龄相关变化与语言加工的变化之间是否存在关系的研究还很少。使用横截面受试者内部设计，我将检查简单和复杂单词的产生和理解，并将这些发现与认知任务(处理速度、记忆)的结果联系起来。形态加工既涉及语法加工(规则/默认形式)，也涉及词汇加工(不规则/非默认形式)。因此，形态复杂的单词是一个特别好的测试案例，因为它们允许研究衰老对不同语言处理机制的影响。工作包(WP)1使用诱导产生和跨情态启动来考察复数名词的理解和产生。特别令人感兴趣的是默认复数和非默认复数之间的(预期)对比，以及年龄是否以不同方式影响这些不同复数类型的处理。WP 2通过图片命名和词汇判断任务评估了年龄如何影响说话者对形态简单单词的产生和理解。通过这种方式，我们可以评估衰老是否以类似的方式影响对复杂单词和简单单词的加工，特别是关于变化的开始和一生的轨迹。工作包3调查了WPS 1和2中发现的衰老对语言加工的影响如何与非语言认知中与年龄相关的变化联系在一起，重点关注一般处理速度和两个主要的学习和记忆系统，即陈述性记忆和程序性记忆。具体地说，这项研究的结果将解决这样一个问题，即老龄化是否对语言加工(即，词汇和语法过程一样)表现出全球性的影响，或者这种影响是否更具选择性，处理的某些方面比其他方面受到的影响更大。除了主要目标-揭示老龄化如何影响语言之外，这项研究还应该有助于提供关于衰老的洞察(独立于语言)和关于语言的洞察(独立于衰老)。这项研究也可能对翻译产生影响，因为研究结果可能为影响语言的年龄相关疾病(例如阿尔茨海默病)的研究提供基线。