LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 9 September 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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Negative Priming in Aging Population

Manjunath. N., M.Sc. (Speech and Hearing)

Abstract

A total of 40 subjects participated in the study, divided into two groups. Group I consisted of elderly population (mean age 60.3 years) and Group II consisted of young adults (mean age 22.1years). Superimposed line drawing pictures were presented in semantically ignored and control negative priming conditions. Reaction time was measured for verbal responses in each condition by using DmDx software.

The results showed no significant negative priming effect in older individuals. Results are discussed with reference to ‘spreading inhibition’ in semantic memory networks, analogous to that of ‘spreading activation’ (Collins & Loftus, 1975). The reason behind the absence of negative priming in older adults may be attributed to the deficit in the spreading inhibition system and reduced information processing efficiency.

Key Words: Inhibition, Language Processing, Reaction time.

Introduction

Normal aging often refers to the most common or usually encountered functional state of the nervous system in a population of older individuals (Civil & Whitehouse, 1991). It is associated with special physical, emotional and social burdens imposed by mental decay in later life and a general wear and tear at anatomical and functional levels.

Normal aging is accompanied by changes in the ability to process, understand and use language. There is no global decline in linguistic functions. However, decline in certain cognitive functions like attention, memory and reaction time has been documented. These cognitive changes impinge on linguistic abilities leading to difficulties in word retrieval process (Kempler, 1992; Maxim, 1999) decline in complex discourse processes (Ulatowastia, 1985), slight diminution in language performance in terms of use of semantic information, structures and error of reference.

Attention is the core cognitive processes involved in language production and comprehension (James, 1980). If there is finite attentional capacity which reduces with increasing age, then larger attentional demands will lead to larger age related deficits (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Aging persons have been shown increased difficulty with selective attention and may attend to more irrelevant details than younger persons (Hamm & Hasher, 1990; Hartman & Hasher, 1990; McDowd, Oseas-Kreger, & Filion, 1995).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Manjunath.N., M.Sc. (Speech & Hearing)
Lecturer
Department of Speech Language Pathology
Nitte Institute of Speech and Hearing
Deralakatte
Mangalore
Karnataka, India
man_n94@yahoo.com
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