Feyereisen P, Demaeght N, Samson D
University of Louvain, Belgium.
Exp Aging Res. 1998 Jan-Feb;24(1):21-51. doi: 10.1080/036107398244346.
To test different hypotheses about age-related slowing of word and picture naming, response latencies of young and older adults were compared in 2 experiments using the same 4 tasks: picture naming, written word pronunciation, and picture and word categorization. In each case, the target word or picture was presented with a distractor word that had to be ignored. Analyses showed the expected main effects of age, modality, and interference conditions but no consistent interaction between age and other factors. More particularly, age-related slowing was similar in word and picture processing and interference was proportional to overall speed of responding. Thus, no support was found for the hypotheses assuming either declining inhibitory mechanisms or task-specific deficits in older adults. These results were discussed in relation to characteristics of the experimental tasks.
为了检验关于与年龄相关的单词和图片命名速度减慢的不同假设，在两项实验中比较了年轻人和老年人的反应潜伏期，这两项实验使用了相同的四项任务：图片命名、书面单词发音以及图片和单词分类。在每种情况下，目标单词或图片都与一个必须被忽略的干扰词一起呈现。分析显示了预期的年龄、模态和干扰条件的主效应，但年龄与其他因素之间没有一致的交互作用。更具体地说，与年龄相关的减慢在单词和图片处理中相似，并且干扰与总体反应速度成正比。因此，没有找到支持假设老年人抑制机制下降或特定任务缺陷的证据。结合实验任务的特点对这些结果进行了讨论。
