scholarly journals Predictability effects and parafoveal processing in older readers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Veldre ◽  
Roslyn Wong ◽  
Sally Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Parafoveal Processing ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
Reading Measures ◽  
Word Skipping ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Normative aging is accompanied by visual and cognitive changes that impact the systems that are critical for fluent reading. The patterns of eye movements during reading displayed by older adults have been characterized as demonstrating a trade-off between longer forward saccades and more word skipping versus higher rates of regressions back to previously read text. This pattern is assumed to reflect older readers’ reliance on top-down contextual information to compensate for reduced uptake of parafoveal information from yet-to-be fixated words. However, the empirical evidence for these assumptions is equivocal. This study investigated the depth of older readers’ parafoveal processing as indexed by sensitivity to the contextual plausibility of parafoveal words in both neutral and highly constraining sentence contexts. The eye movements of 65 cognitively intact older adults (61-87 years) were compared with data previously collected from young adults in two sentence reading experiments in which critical target words were replaced by valid, plausible, related, or implausible previews until the reader fixated on the target word location. Older and younger adults showed equivalent plausibility preview benefits on first-pass reading measures of both predictable and unpredictable words. However, older readers did not show the benefit of preview orthographic relatedness that was observed in young adults, and showed significantly attenuated preview validity effects. Taken together, the data suggest that older readers are specifically impaired in the integration of parafoveal and foveal information but do not show deficits in the depth of parafoveal processing. The implications for understanding the effects of aging on reading are discussed.

Effects of aging and noncanonical form presentation on idiom processing: Evidence from eye tracking

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Katja I. Haeuser ◽  
Shari Baum ◽  
Debra Titone
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Idiom Comprehension ◽  
First Pass ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Idiom Processing ◽  
Noncanonical Form

Abstract Comprehending idioms (e.g., bite the bullet) requires that people appreciate their figurative meanings while suppressing literal interpretations of the phrase. While much is known about idioms, an open question is how healthy aging and noncanonical form presentation affect idiom comprehension when the task is to read sentences silently for comprehension. Here, younger and older adults read sentences containing idioms or literal phrases, while we monitored their eye movements. Idioms were presented in a canonical or a noncanonical form (e.g., bite the iron bullet). To assess whether people integrate figurative or literal interpretations of idioms, a disambiguating region that was figuratively or literally biased followed the idiom in each sentence. During early stages of reading, older adults showed facilitation for canonical idioms, suggesting a greater sensitivity to stored idiomatic forms. During later stages of reading, older adults showed slower reading times when canonical idioms were biased toward their literal interpretation, suggesting they were more likely to interpret idioms figuratively on the first pass. In contrast, noncanonical form presentation slowed comprehension of figurative meanings comparably in younger and older participants. We conclude that idioms may be more strongly entrenched in older adults, and that noncanonical form presentation slows comprehension of figurative meanings.

Age Differences in Source Monitoring and Referent Discrimination

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinidad Ruiz-Gallego-Largo ◽  
Teresa Simón ◽  
Aurora G. Suengas
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Source Monitoring ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Other ◽  
Reality Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Framework ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Two Age Groups

In contrast to previous studies which addressed separately memory for source and referent, the present experiment analyzes the effects of aging on memory for both, source and referent. The experiment simulated a conversation between two people exchanging descriptors of themselves and the other speaker (e.g., “I am helpful,” “you are capable”). Participants (N = 60) were divided into two age groups: younger (M = 23.47 years old, SD = 2.37), older (M = 70.30 years old, SD = 3.73). Recall, recognition, and accuracy in identifying source (e.g., “who said helpful?”) and referent (e.g., “about whom was capable said?”) were analyzed. Younger and older adults recalled and recognized equally well information read by the experimenter about herself, but only young adults showed better memory for the descriptors they read about themselves. Older adults were impaired in source monitoring, but not in reference discrimination. Normal referent discrimination in older adults is attributed to the fact that the referent forms part of the content of the episode, whereas who spoke it is part of its context, and older adults tend to show greater deficits in context than in content memory. These results are explained within the source and reality monitoring framework.

Matching Instructional Media with Instructional Demands

2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (25) ◽  
pp. 2089-2093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmundo A. Sierra ◽  
Arthur D. Fisk ◽  
Wendy A. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Mental Workload ◽  
Instructional Media ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Video Instruction ◽  
Assembly Task ◽  
Age Related

Video instruction is an effective support for audio instruction of visuospatial tasks; but how is effectiveness of this type of instruction moderated? We investigated the effects of age-related cognitive changes, audio versus audio-plus-video instructions, differential working memory instruction demands, and differential task difficulty on assembly task performance. Forty-eight young adults and 48 older adults completed an assembly task where accuracy, use of additional time, repetition of steps, and subjective mental workload were measured. Results indicated that participants receiving audio plus video instruction benefited most as task difficulty increased. Older adults performed more poorly compared to young adults; however, the findings indicate that video-based instruction was beneficial for both young and older adults for this class of task. Results are discussed from a training perspective in general and as they relate to telemedicine specifically. Guidelines for applying the correct instructional media as a function of the instructional demands are discussed.

scholarly journals Effects of aging and emotional valence on item directed forgetting and source attributions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara N. Gallant
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Directed Forgetting ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Probe Detection ◽  
Intentional Forgetting ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Emotional Effects

Two experiments investigated the effects of aging and emotion on intentional forgetting. Experiment 1 compared 36 young (aged 18-28, M = 20.22, SD = 3.12) and 36 older adults (aged 65-85, M = 71.53, SD = 5.44) on item directed forgetting and source attributions (i.e., assigning a 'remember', 'forget', or 'new' tag during recognition) of positive, negative, and neutral words. Older adults' directed forgetting was reduced for positive words and their source attributions were differentially affected by emotion. Emotion had no effect on young adults' performance. Experiment 2 examined the role of attention in older adults' intentional forgetting. Thirty-six older adults (aged 65-91, M = 73.92, SD = 7.55) completed an emotional item directed forgetting task that incorporated a probe-detection task during encoding to assess the allocation of attention across valence conditions. Older adults again showed reduced directed forgetting for positive words and emotional effects in source attributions; however, results from the probe-detection task indicated the older adults' attention may not have been influenced by the emotional tone of stimuli during encoding.

scholarly journals Assessing the Effects of Aging on Muscle Stiffness Using Shear Wave Elastography and Myotonometer

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1733
Author(s):  
Yerim Do ◽  
Prarthana Sanya Lall ◽  
Haneul Lee
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Shear Wave ◽  
Shear Wave Elastography ◽  
Tissue Level ◽  
Muscle Stiffness ◽  
Medial Gastrocnemius ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Muscle Impairment ◽  
Effects Of Aging

The current study investigated the differences in muscle stiffness between older and young adults at rest and during contraction. We also evaluated the differences in muscle stiffness assessments using a myotonometer (MyotonPRO) and shear wave elastography (SWE). Twenty-two older adults (mean age, 66.6 ± 1.6 years) and 23 young adults (mean age, 66.6 ± 1.6 years) participated in this study. Muscle stiffness of the tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscles at rest and during contraction were measured using SWE and the MyotonPRO. The stiffness increase rate (SIR) was also calculated to determine the absolute stiffness difference. The mean muscle stiffness of the TA and MG muscles was significantly lower in older adults than in young adults at rest and during contraction (p < 0.05). Similarly, the SIR values of the TA and MG were significantly lower in older adults than in young adults (p < 0.05). Our results indicate that both instruments could be used to quantify muscle stiffness changes and serve as a cornerstone for assessing aging-related losses in muscle function. Stiffness measures may help exercise professionals to develop an in-depth understanding of muscle impairment at the tissue level.

scholarly journals Age-Related Decline in Pragmatic Reasoning of Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 703-704
Author(s):  
W Quin Yow ◽  
Jia Wen Lee ◽  
Xiaoqian Li
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Visible Object ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
Pragmatic Reasoning

Abstract As speech is often ambiguous, pragmatic reasoning—the process of integrating multiple sources of information including semantics, ostensive cues and contextual information (Bohn & Frank, 2019)—is essential to understanding a speaker’s intentions. Despite current literature suggesting that certain social cognitive processes such as gaze-processing (Slessor et al., 2014) appear to be impaired in late adulthood, it is not well understood if pragmatic reasoning decline with age. Here, we examined young adults’ (aged 19-25; n=41) and older adults’ (aged 60-79; n=41) ability to engage in pragmatic reasoning in a cue integration task. In Experiment 1, participants had to integrate contextual (participants and speaker knew there were two novel objects but the latter could only see one), semantic (“There’s the [novel-label]” or “Where’s the [novel-label]”), and gaze (speaker looked at the mutually-visible object) cues to identify the referent (Nurmsoo & Bloom, 2008). In Experiment 2, participants received contextual and semantic cues less gaze cue. In both experiments, the target referent object for “There” and “Where” trials was the mutually-visible object and the object the speaker could not see respectively. Overall, young adults outperformed older adults, even in the simpler two-cue Experiment 2 (ps&lt;.006). While older adults were significantly above chance in “There” trials for both experiments as well as “Where” trials in Experiment 2 (ps&lt;.05), they had specific difficulty in integrating three cues in “Where” trials, where a more sophisticated interpretation of the multiple cues was required (p=.42). Our findings provide important insights into an age-related decline of pragmatic reasoning in older adults.

Effects of Aging on Conditional Visuomotor Learning for Grasping and Lifting Eccentrically Weighted Objects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nishant Rao ◽  
Neha Mehta ◽  
Pujan Patel ◽  
Pranav J Parikh
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Center Of Mass ◽  
Dexterous Manipulation ◽  
Object Property ◽  
Conditional Learning ◽  
Color Cues ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Digit Position

Explicit knowledge of object center of mass or CM location fails to guide anticipatory scaling of digit forces necessary for dexterous manipulation. We previously showed that allowing young adults to choose where to grasp the object entailed an ability to use arbitrary color cues about object CM location to gradually minimize object tilt across several trials. This conditional learning was achieved through accurate anticipatory modulation of digit position using the color cues. However, it remains unknown how aging affects the ability to use explicit color cues about object CM location to modulate digit placement for dexterous manipulation. We instructed healthy older and young adults to learn a manipulation task using arbitrary color cues about object CM location. Subjects were required to exert clockwise, counterclockwise, or no torque on the object according to the color cue and lift the object while minimizing its tilt. Older adults produced larger torque error during conditional learning trials, resulting in a slower rate of learning than young adults. Importantly, older adults showed impaired anticipatory modulation of digit position when information of the CM location was available via explicit color cues. The older adults also did not modulate their digit forces to compensate for this impairment. Interestingly, however, anticipatory modulation of digit position was intact in the same individuals when information of object CM location was implicitly conveyed from trial-to-trial. We discuss our findings in relation to age-dependent changes in processes and neural network essential for learning dexterous manipulation using arbitrary color cue about object property.

scholarly journals Decreased Trunk Angular Displacement During Sitting Down: An Early Feature of Aging

2005 ◽  
Vol 85 (5) ◽  
pp. 404-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Dubost ◽  
Olivier Beauchet ◽  
Patrick Manckoundia ◽  
François Herrmann ◽  
France Mourey
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Angular Displacement ◽  
Orientation Angle ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Trunk Motion ◽  
Sit To Stand ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
Angular Displacements ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Abstract Background and Purpose. Trunk motion plays an important role in achieving both sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transfers. However, these 2 body transfers depend on different postural and mechanical constraints. Although the effects of aging on sit-to-stand transfers have been widely studied, there is a lack of information concerning stand-to-sit transfers. The aim of this study was to determine how angular displacements of the trunk and shank are affected by aging during sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit transfers. Subjects. Ten community-dwelling older adults (mean age=75.9 years, SD=3.2) and 9 young adults (mean age=26.8 years, SD=4.7) volunteered to participate. Methods. Maximal angular displacements of the trunk and shank with respect to the vertical (ie, orientation angles) were measured, during standing up and sitting down, using an optoelectronic movement analyzer. Results. For standing up, there was no difference between the young and older adults with regard to both maximal orientation angles. During sitting down, the maximal shank orientation angle was not affected by age, whereas the older adults had a smaller trunk motion compared with the young adults (approximately 10° less). Discussion and Conclusion. The results showed that older adults tended to minimize the forward body displacement during sitting down. This strategy could be seen as an adaptive mechanism to decrease the risk of anterior disequilibrium. The authors suggest that this feature could be used as an early marker of aging on postural control.

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