SPEECH ACCOMODATIONS BY AND TO OLDER ADULTS

在以前的研究中，“言语解释和老年人”使用的参考沟通任务，年轻人调整他们的流畅性，语义内容和句法复杂性，以感知他们的合作伙伴的沟通需求。 老年人没有做出这样的言语调整，似乎在各种情况下使用一致的言语风格，这表明，像其他研究一样，老年人的言语产生受到工作记忆限制的限制，影响他们产生复杂的句法结构。 本研究将通过操纵句子产生任务的工作记忆需求的“在线”实验任务来扩展老年人言语调节的研究。 提出了三个系列的实验。 系列1将分析语言样本，以评估对语言流畅性，句法复杂性和语义内容的并发处理需求的影响。 基线语言样本将与参与者同时行走、轻敲食指、以复杂模式轻敲四个手指、听并发语音和听听觉牙牙学语时收集的语言样本进行比较。 这些并发任务先前已被证明会影响工作记忆任务的表现，因此，它们被预测会竞争工作记忆，进而影响语音产生。 行走和轻拍率也将在基线和同时说话条件下进行检查。 系列2将使用句子生成任务，该任务控制词汇项的选择，并检查使用指定的词汇项集生成句子的延迟和生成句子的复杂性。计划进行三项实验：（2a）考察句子起始时间和句子复杂度与特定词汇量的关系。 (2b)考察由单个动词生成的句子或由多个动词生成的句子的句子起始时间和句子复杂度。 (2c)为了检查句子的开始时间和句子的复杂性，使用一个指定的词汇清单来完成简单和复杂的句子框架。 系列3将使用一个受控的句子生产任务，检查延迟启动记忆句子。 本研究设计了三个实验：（3a）考察简单句和复杂句的句子起始时间。 (3b)考察简单句和复杂句生成过程中的句内停顿。 (3c)考察语义限制句和可逆句的句子起始时间。 在所有三个系列的实验中，还将检查言语能力、处理速度、工作记忆和抑制的个体差异。

In previous research on "Speech Accommodations by and to Older Adults" using a referential communication task, young adults adjusted their fluency, semantic content, and syntactic complexity to the perceived communication needs of their partners. Older adults did not make such speech adjustments and appeared to use a consistent speech style in a variety of situations, suggesting, like other lines of research, that older adults' speech production is constrained by working memory limitations that affect their production of complex syntactic constructions. The present proposal will extend this study of older adults' speech accommodations by using "on-line" experimental tasks manipulated the working memory demands of sentence production tasks. Three series of experiments are proposed. Series 1 will analyze language samples to assess the effects on concurrent processing demands on linguistic fluency, syntactic complexity, and semantic content. A baseline language sample will be compared to language samples collected while participants are concurrently walking, tapping their index fingers, tapping four fingers in a complex pattern, listening to concurrent speech, and listening to auditory babble. These concurrent tasks have previously been shown to affect performance on working memory tasks, hence, they are predicted to compete for working memory and, in turn affect speech production. Walking and tapping rates will also be examined in baseline and concurrent speaking conditions. Series 2 will use a sentence production task that controls the choice of lexical items and examines the latency to generate a sentence using a specified set of lexical items and the complexity of the generated sentence. Three experiments are planned: (2a) To examine sentence initiation times and sentence complexity as a function of the size of the set of specified lexical items. (2b) To examine sentence initiation times and sentence complexity for sentences generated from single verbs or for sentences generated from multiple verbs. (2c) To examine sentence initiation times and sentence complexity for sentences generated to complete simple and complex sentence frames using a specified inventory of lexical items. Series 3 will use a controlled sentence production task that examines the latency to initiate memorized sentences. Three experiments are planned: (3a) To examine sentence initiation times for simple and complex sentences. (3b) To examine intra-sentence pauses during the production of simple and complex sentences. (3c) To examine sentence initiation times for semantically constrained and reversible sentences. In all three series of experiments, individual differences in verbal ability, processing speed, working memory, and inhibition will also be examined.