Cohen-Shikora Emily R, Balota David A
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Psychol Aging. 2016 Aug;31(5):488-502. doi: 10.1037/pag0000100. Epub 2016 Jun 23.
The current study examines visual word recognition in a large sample (N = 148) across the adult life span and across a large set of stimuli (N = 1,187) in three different lexical processing tasks (pronunciation, lexical decision, and animacy judgment). Although the focus of the present study is on the influence of word frequency, a diverse set of other variables are examined as the word recognition system ages and acquires more experience with language. Computational models and conceptual theories of visual word recognition and aging make differing predictions for age-related changes in the system. However, these have been difficult to assess because prior studies have produced inconsistent results, possibly because of sample differences, analytic procedures, and/or task-specific processes. The current study confronts these potential differences by using 3 different tasks, treating age and word variables as continuous, and exploring the influence of individual differences such as vocabulary, vision, and working memory. The primary finding is remarkable stability in the influence of a diverse set of variables on visual word recognition across the adult age spectrum. This pattern is discussed in reference to previous inconsistent findings in the literature and implications for current models of visual word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record
本研究在一个大样本（N = 148）中考察了成年期各年龄段的视觉单词识别情况，并在三种不同的词汇加工任务（发音、词汇判断和生命性判断）中对一大组刺激材料（N = 1187）进行了研究。尽管本研究的重点是词频的影响，但随着单词识别系统的老化以及积累了更多的语言经验，还考察了一系列其他不同的变量。视觉单词识别与衰老的计算模型和概念理论对该系统中与年龄相关的变化做出了不同的预测。然而，由于先前的研究结果不一致，可能是由于样本差异、分析程序和/或特定任务的过程，这些预测很难评估。本研究通过使用三种不同的任务、将年龄和单词变量视为连续变量以及探究个体差异（如词汇量、视力和工作记忆）的影响来应对这些潜在差异。主要发现是，在成年年龄范围内，一系列不同变量对视觉单词识别的影响具有显著的稳定性。结合文献中先前不一致的研究结果以及对当前视觉单词识别模型的启示，对这一模式进行了讨论。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
