Discourse Processing in Healthy Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究项目的目的是确定语篇过程中与年龄相关的变化是否与认知过程中与年龄相关的变化相对应，并检验有关成人一生中语篇处理的假设。语篇处理是最复杂的语言处理形式，既需要语言能力（如理解），也需要语言表现（如生产）。有人认为，语言和认知的年龄相关变化是相关的。然而，对语篇加工中与年龄相关的变化缺乏全面、系统的描述。本研究计划将通过评估研究者的综合语篇加工模型，包括语篇生产中涉及的多种语言成分和认知操作，来解决老龄化研究中的这一空白。本研究的重要意义在于，绘制了20岁至80岁年龄组成人一生中话语过程和认知过程的变化，并确定了认知功能的年龄相关变化如何影响句内和句间过程的年龄相关变化。该项目的具体目标是：(1)确定一生中记忆和注意力的变化与叙事和程序性话语的能力和表现之间的关系；(2)记录健康成人群体中话语的哪些方面或哪些方面对衰老最敏感；(3)调查成人一生中叙事理解的年龄相关变化。结构方程模型将用于分析我们感兴趣的潜在变量（认知和语言处理）和感兴趣的显化变量（句子过程内部和之间）之间的并发关系，语言能力和记忆和注意力的标准化测量。为了解决第二个和第三个目标，我们开发了一系列的子实验来回答我们感兴趣的问题；这些数据将使用经典的方差分析和非参数（Wilcoxon）分析进行分析。本研究结果将为话语和认知衰老的理论提供理论依据，并为与衰老相关的沟通障碍和获得性神经源性沟通障碍的临床应用提供规范的数据库。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objectives of this research program are to determine whether age-related changes in discourse processes correspond to age-related changes in cognitive processes and to test hypotheses regarding discourse processing across the adult lifespan. Discourse processing is the most complex form of language processing and requires linguistic competence (e.g., comprehension) as well as linguistic performance (e.g., production). It has been suggested that age-related changes in language and cognition are related. However, a comprehensive and systematic description of age-related changes in discourse processing is lacking. The proposed research program will address this gap in aging research by evaluating the investigators' comprehensive discourse processing model that includes the multiple linguistic components and cognitive operations involved in discourse production. The significance of the proposed research program is that it charts change in discourse processes and cognitive processes across the adult lifespan in 10-year age cohorts (20s - 80s) and identifies how age-related changes in cognitive functions contribute to age-related changes in within-sentence and between-sentence processes. The specific aims of the proposed project are to: (1) determine how changes in memory and attention across the life span relate to competence and performance of narrative and procedural discourse, (2) document which aspect or aspects of discourse are most sensitive to aging in healthy adult cohorts, and (3) investigate age-related changes in comprehension of narratives across the adult lifespan. Structural equation modeling will be used to analyze the concurrent relationships between our latent variables of interest (cognition and linguistic processing) and manifest variables of interest (within and between sentence processes, linguistic competence and standardized measures of memory and attention). To address the second and third aims we have developed a series of subexperiments to answer our questions of interest; these data will be analyzed using classical ANOVAs as well as nonparametric (Wilcoxon) analyses. Results of this research will inform theories of discourse and cognitive aging as well as provide a normative database for clinical application to individuals with communication disorders associated with aging disorders and acquired neurogenic communication disorders.