Langley Linda K, Saville Alyson L, Gayzur Nora D, Fuentes Luis J
Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, USA.
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2008 Nov;15(6):657-86. doi: 10.1080/13825580802036928. Epub 2008 May 20.
In three experiments age differences in attention to semantic context were examined. The performance of younger adults (ages 18-29 years) and older adults (ages 60-79 years) on a semantic priming task indicated that both age groups could use information regarding the probability that a prime and target would be related to flexibly anticipate the target category given the prime word (Experiment 1). The timing by which target expectancies were reflected in reaction time performance was delayed for older adults as compared to younger adults, but only when the target was expected to be semantically unrelated to the prime word (Experiment 2). When the target and prime were expected to be semantically related, the time course of priming effects was similar for younger and older adults (Experiment 3). Together the findings indicate that older adults are able to use semantic context and the probability of stimulus relatedness to anticipate target information. Although aging may be associated with a delay in the timing by which controlled expectancies are expressed, these findings argue against an age-related decline in the ability to represent contextual information.
在三项实验中，研究了对语义语境的注意力方面的年龄差异。年轻成年人（18至29岁）和年长成年人（60至79岁）在语义启动任务中的表现表明，两个年龄组都能够利用有关启动词和目标词相关概率的信息，在给定启动词的情况下灵活地预测目标类别（实验1）。与年轻成年人相比，年长成年人在反应时间表现中反映目标预期的时间延迟了，但仅当预期目标与启动词在语义上不相关时才会出现这种情况（实验2）。当预期目标与启动词在语义上相关时，年轻和年长成年人的启动效应时间进程相似（实验3）。这些研究结果共同表明，年长成年人能够利用语义语境和刺激相关性概率来预测目标信息。虽然衰老可能与控制性预期表达时间的延迟有关，但这些研究结果反驳了与年龄相关的表征语境信息能力下降的观点。
