Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Psychol Aging. 2012 Jun;27(2):529-40. doi: 10.1037/a0026028. Epub 2011 Nov 14.
In three experiments, we investigated the cognitive effects of linguistic prominence to establish whether focus plays a similar or different role in modulating language processing in healthy ageing. Information structuring through the use of cleft sentences is known to increase the processing efficiency of anaphoric references to elements contained with a marked focus structure. It also protects these elements from becoming suppressed in the wake of subsequent information, suggesting selective mechanisms of enhancement and suppression. In Experiment 1 (using self-paced reading), we found that focus enhanced (faster) integration for anaphors referring to words contained within the scope of focus; but suppressed (slower) integration for anaphors to words contained outside of the scope of focus; and in some cases, the effects were larger in older adults. In Experiment 2 (using change detection), we showed that older adults relied more on the linguistic structure to enhance change detection when the changed word was in focus. In Experiment 3 (using delayed probe recognition and eye-tracking), we found that older adults recognized probes more accurately when they were made to elements within the scope of focus than when they were outside the scope of focus. These results indicate that older adults' ability to selectively attend or suppress concepts in a marked focus structure is preserved.
在三项实验中，我们研究了语言突出程度对认知的影响，以确定焦点在调节健康老龄化人群的语言处理中是否发挥相似或不同的作用。通过使用分裂句进行信息结构组织，已知可以提高对包含在标记焦点结构中的元素的回指参考的处理效率。它还可以防止这些元素在后续信息的影响下被抑制，这表明存在选择性增强和抑制机制。在实验 1（使用自定步速阅读）中，我们发现焦点增强（加快）了对包含在焦点范围内的单词的回指的整合；但对包含在焦点范围外的单词的回指的整合则受到抑制（变慢）；在某些情况下，老年人的效果更大。在实验 2（使用变化检测）中，我们表明，当变化的单词处于焦点时，老年人更多地依赖语言结构来增强变化检测。在实验 3（使用延迟探针识别和眼动跟踪）中，我们发现当探针指向焦点范围内的元素时，老年人对探针的识别更准确，而当探针指向焦点范围外的元素时，识别则不准确。这些结果表明，老年人在标记焦点结构中选择性关注或抑制概念的能力得以保留。
