Wright Heather Harris, Newhoff Marilyn
The University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40504, USA.
Brain Lang. 2002 Feb;80(2):226-39. doi: 10.1006/brln.2001.2595.
In comparison to younger adults, older adults demonstrate deficiencies in cognitive and linguistic abilities. Such cognitive factors that decline with age include working memory capacity and inhibitory abilities. The purpose of the present investigation was to measure differences in time course processing of inference revision abilities, as well as working memory, as they exist relative to adult age differences. Fifteen neurologically intact older adults and 15 younger adults participated in this study. A cross-modal lexical priming paradigm was chosen as the measure of the inference revision task; the listening span task of Tompkins, Bloise, Timko, and Baumgaertner (1994) was selected as the measure of working memory. Both groups demonstrated normal priming effects. No age-related differences were found on the working memory measure. Age-related differences did emerge on inferencing abilities. A significant correlation emerged between the older group's performance on comprehending inference revisions and their working memory capacity. Generally, inhibitory abilities and working memory capacity appeared to adversely affect older participant's performance.
与年轻人相比，老年人在认知和语言能力方面表现出不足。随着年龄增长而下降的认知因素包括工作记忆容量和抑制能力。本研究的目的是测量推理修正能力以及工作记忆在时间进程处理方面的差异，因为它们与成年人的年龄差异相关。15名神经功能正常的老年人和15名年轻人参与了这项研究。选择跨模态词汇启动范式作为推理修正任务的测量方法；选择汤普金斯、布洛伊斯、蒂姆科和鲍姆加特纳（1994年）的听力广度任务作为工作记忆的测量方法。两组都表现出正常的启动效应。在工作记忆测量中未发现与年龄相关的差异。在推理能力方面确实出现了与年龄相关的差异。老年组在理解推理修正方面的表现与其工作记忆容量之间出现了显著的相关性。一般来说，抑制能力和工作记忆容量似乎对老年参与者的表现产生了不利影响。
