scholarly journals Age differences in the effect of animacy on Mandarin sentence processing

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinmiao Liu ◽  
Wenbin Wang ◽  
Haiyan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Object Relative

Animate nouns are preferred for grammatical subjects, whereas inanimate nouns are preferred for grammatical objects. Animacy provides important semantic cues for sentence comprehension. However, how individuals’ ability to use this animacy cue changes with advancing age is still not clear. The current study investigated whether older adults and younger adults were differentially sensitive to this semantic constraint in processing Mandarin relative clauses, using a self-paced reading paradigm. The sentences used in the study contained subject relative clauses or object relative clauses and had animate or inanimate subjects. The results indicate that the animacy manipulation affected the younger adults more than the older adults in online processing. Younger adults had longer reading times for all segments in subject relative clauses than in object relative clauses when the subjects were inanimate, whereas there was no significant difference in reading times between subject and object relative clauses when the subjects were animate. In the older group, animacy was not found to influence the processing difficulty of subject relative clauses and object relative clauses. Compared with younger adults, older adults were less sensitive to animacy constraints in relative clause processing. The findings indicate that the use of animacy cues became less efficient in the ageing population. The results can be explained by the capacity constrained comprehension theory, according to which older adults have greater difficulty in integrating semantic information with syntactic processing due to the lack of sufficient cognitive resources.

The influences of proficiency levels and working memory capacities on sentence comprehension by Japanese learners of English

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 143-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Suda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Object Relative

Examining influences of two participant factors, i.e., proficiency and working memory (WM), in second language (L2) sentence processing, we discuss how Japanese learners of English (JLEs) with distinct proficiency levels and WM capacities comprehend relative clauses in English. Reading times (RTs) were collected from intermediate and elementary levels of JLEs with different WM capacities using a self-paced reading task. The results revealed that: (1) JLEs had difficulty interpreting object relative clauses with animate antecedents; (2) JLEs at the elementary level processed the critical region in subject relative clauses with animate antecedents faster than that in object relative clauses with animate antecedents; (3) JLEs with the large WM capacity read embedded verbs faster than those with the small WM capacity; and (4) RTs of the verb region in the subject relative clause were shorter than those in the object relative clause. From these results, we propose that lower proficient L2 learners depend heavily on animacy information when they comprehend relative clauses though there appears evidence that JLEs also make use of structural information. Moreover, we suggest that WM has a positive role in the L2 comprehension process, similar to findings in previous L2 processing studies.

Age-Related Differences in the Online Processing of Spoken Semantic Context and the Effect of Semantic Competition: Evidence From Eye Gaze

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-327
Author(s):  
Tami Harel-Arbeli ◽  
Arthur Wingfield ◽  
Yuval Palgi ◽  
Boaz M. Ben-David
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Target Word ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Semantic Context ◽  
Context Processing ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Semantic Competition

Purpose The study examined age-related differences in the use of semantic context and in the effect of semantic competition in spoken sentence processing. We used offline (response latency) and online (eye gaze) measures, using the “visual world” eye-tracking paradigm. Method Thirty younger and 30 older adults heard sentences related to one of four images presented on a computer monitor. They were asked to touch the image corresponding to the final word of the sentence (target word). Three conditions were used: a nonpredictive sentence, a predictive sentence suggesting one of the four images on the screen (semantic context), and a predictive sentence suggesting two possible images (semantic competition). Results Online eye gaze data showed no age-related differences with nonpredictive sentences, but revealed slowed processing for older adults when context was presented. With the addition of semantic competition to context, older adults were slower to look at the target word after it had been heard. In contrast, offline latency analysis did not show age-related differences in the effects of context and competition. As expected, older adults were generally slower to touch the image than younger adults. Conclusions Traditional offline measures were not able to reveal the complex effect of aging on spoken semantic context processing. Online eye gaze measures suggest that older adults were slower than younger adults to predict an indicated object based on semantic context. Semantic competition affected online processing for older adults more than for younger adults, with no accompanying age-related differences in latency. This supports an early age-related inhibition deficit, interfering with processing, and not necessarily with response execution.

scholarly journals Effects of Differential Presentation of Noun Types on Sentence Processing in Elderly Adults: An Eye-tracking Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 847-862
Author(s):  
Suji Kim ◽  
Jee Eun Sung
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Lower Accuracy

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate how aging influences sentence processing when noun-phrases are presented differently.Methods: A total of 40 participants participated in the study ranging in age from 19 to 71. All were presented with sentences and pictures under either dative or accusative conditions. After that, they were asked to judge if the sentences were correct or incorrect.Results: First, there were significant differences between the older adults and younger adults in accuracy. The older group showed lower accuracy in the sentence judgment task. Second, there were significant differences between the older adults and younger adults in response time. The older group needed more time due to their lower cognitive resources. They made more errors when accusative noun phrases were provided. Third, the fixation proportion of the target stimulus between regions were significant in both types of dative and accusative noun phrase presentation. The older group showed lower proportions in the last region of the sentence.Conclusion: These results shows that both the elderly and the young gradually deal with the meaning of words through the noun phrase information. However, the elderly showed difficulty in assigning the correct thematic roles by using case-markers, given the lower proportion of fixation in the region where the target stimuli are presented. It is expected that difficulties in the communication process of the elderly will be better understood through this study.

scholarly journals The Effect of Mood on Predictive Sentence Processing by Older Adults

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110156
Author(s):  
Xinmiao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Age Difference ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Online Sentence Processing ◽  
Mood Condition ◽  
Practical Implications

This study examined the effect of mood on predictive sentence processing by older adults. A self-paced reading task was implemented among a group of younger adults and older adults to measure their performance in online sentence processing. Half of the sentences were highly predictable, whereas the other half were lowly predictable. Music was used to induce positive or negative mood. Results show that in the positive mood condition, highly predictable sentences were processed more efficiently than lowly predictable sentences in both older and younger adults, but no significant age difference was found in the effect of predictability. In the negative mood condition, younger adults processed highly predictable sentences more efficiently than lowly predictable sentences, but there was no significant difference in reading times between the different types of sentences in older adults. The findings suggest that predictive sentence processing might be inhibited by negative mood in older adults. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Priming Younger and Older Adults’ Sentence Comprehension: Insights from Dynamic Emotional Facial Expressions and Pupil Size Measures

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Nella Carminati ◽  
Pia Knoeferle
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Pupil Dilation ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Visual World ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Positive Valence

Background: Prior visual-world research has demonstrated that emotional priming of spoken sentence processing is rapidly modulated by age. Older and younger participants saw two photographs of a positive and of a negative event side-by-side and listened to a spoken sentence about one of these events. Older adults’ fixations to the mentioned (positive) event were enhanced when the still photograph of a previously-inspected positive-valence speaker face was (vs. wasn’t) emotionally congruent with the event/sentence. By contrast, the younger adults exhibited such an enhancement with negative stimuli only. Objective: The first aim of the current study was to assess the replicability of these findings with dynamic face stimuli (unfolding from neutral to happy or sad). A second goal was to assess a key prediction made by socio-emotional selectivity theory, viz. that the positivity effect (a preference for positive information) displayed by older adults involves cognitive effort. Method: We conducted an eye-tracking visual-world experiment. Results: Most priming and age effects, including the positivity effects, replicated. However, against our expectations, the positive gaze preference in older adults did not co-vary with a standard measure of cognitive effort - increased pupil dilation. Instead, pupil size was significantly bigger when (both younger and older) adults processed negative than positive stimuli. Conclusion: These findings are in line with previous research on the relationship between positive gaze preferences and pupil dilation. We discuss both theoretical and methodological implications of these results.

Visitation and quality of life among older adults in jail

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Grace Prost ◽  
Meghan A. Novisky
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Developmental Theory ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper aims to examine differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and quality of life (QOL) among older and younger jailed adults. The authors also explored the contribution of visitation to QOL among adults in this setting. The authors anticipated fewer visits and lower QOL among older adults. Framed by psychosocial developmental theory, the authors also anticipated a larger effect in the relationship between visitation and QOL among older rather than younger adults and that visitation would contribute most readily to psychological QOL. Design/methodology/approach Cross-sectional data from a large US jail were used (n = 264). The authors described the sample regarding visitation and QOL measures among older (≥45) and younger adults (≤44) and examined differences in measures of and relationships between visitation and QOL using independent sample t-tests and bivariate analyses. The authors explored the contribution of visitation to psychological, social relationships, physical and environmental QOL among jailed adults using hierarchical multiple linear regression. Findings Older adults had fewer family visits and lower physical QOL than younger adults, disparities were moderate in effect (d range = 0.33–0.35). A significant difference also emerged between groups regarding the visitation and environmental QOL relationship (z = 1.66, p <0.05). Visitation contributed to variation in physical and social relationships QOL among jailed adults (Beta range = 0.19–0.24). Originality/value Limited research exists among jailed older adults and scholars have yet to examine the relationship between visitation and QOL among persons in these settings.

scholarly journals Age Is Not a Barrier: Older Adults With Cancer Derive Similar Benefit in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Remote Symptom Monitoring Intervention Compared With Younger Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 107327482096887
Author(s):  
Lorinda A. Coombs ◽  
Lee Ellington ◽  
Angela Fagerlin ◽  
Kathi Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Interactive Voice Response ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Symptom Monitoring ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Perceived Benefit ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Technological Tool

This study investigated a remote symptom monitoring intervention to examine if older participants with cancer received a similar magnitude of benefit compared with younger adults with cancer. We analyzed a longitudinal symptom monitoring intervention for 358 participants beginning a new course of chemotherapy treatment in community and academic oncology practices. The study design was a randomized control trial; participants were randomized to the intervention or usual care, the intervention was delivered during daily automated coaching. Older adults with moderate and severe symptoms derived similar benefit as those adults younger than 60 years of age, adherence to the study protocol which involved daily calls was high. There was no significant difference between the 2 age categories; on average, older adult participants made 88% of expected daily calls and younger adult participants made 90% of expected daily calls. Our results challenge the perception that older adults are unwilling or unable to use a technological tool such as interactive voice response and suggest that patient utilization may be guided by other factors, such as ease of use and perceived benefit from the intervention.

The comprehension of Turkish relative clauses in second language acquisition and agrammatism

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
ÖZGÜR AYDIN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Linear Distance ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Structural Distance ◽  
Early Learners ◽  
Significant Support ◽  
Object Relative

The purposes of this study are to test whether the processing of subject relative (SR) clauses is easier than that of object relative (OR) clauses in Turkish and to investigate whether the comprehension of SRs can be better explained by the linear distance hypothesis or structural distance hypothesis (SDH). The question is examined in two groups of second language (L2) learners of different proficiency levels and a few agrammatics expected to show a similar pattern. Each participant is asked to comprehend 15 sentences containing SRs and ORs via a picture selection task. The results indicate that comprehension of SRs is easier than that of ORs for intermediate level L2 learners, whereas there is no significant difference between the types of relative clauses for early learners. Another result is that early learners produce errors similar to those of agrammatics, which are explained through trace deletion and referential strategy. These findings on Turkish provide significant support for the SDH.

scholarly journals Similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension in aphasia: A computational evaluation of two models of cue-based retrieval

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Lissón ◽  
Dario Paape ◽  
Dorothea Pregla ◽  
Nicole Stadie ◽  
Frank Burchert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Computational Evaluation ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Access Model

Sentence comprehension requires the listener to link incoming words with short-term memory representations in order to build linguistic dependencies. The cue-based retrieval theory of sentence processing predicts that the retrieval of these memory representations is affected by similarity-based interference. We present the first large-scale computational evaluation of interference effects in two models of sentence processing – the activation-based model, and a modification of the direct-access model – in individuals with aphasia (IWA) and control participants in German. The parameters of the models are linked to prominent theories of processing deficits in aphasia, and the models are tested against two linguistic constructions in German: Pronoun resolution and relative clauses. The data come from a visual-world eye-tracking experiment combined with a sentence-picture matching task. The results show that both control participants and IWA are susceptible to retrieval interference, and that a combination of theoretical explanations (intermittent deficiencies, slow syntax, and resource reduction) can explain IWA’s deficits in sentence processing. Model comparisons reveal that both models have a similar predictive performance in pronoun resolution, but the activation-based model outperforms the direct-access model in relative clauses.

scholarly journals When Structure Competes with Semantics: Reading Chinese Relative Clauses

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peiyun Zhou ◽  
Yun Yao ◽  
Kiel Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Role Reversal ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Thematic Role ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Reading Chinese ◽  
Semantic Plausibility ◽  
Object Relative

An ongoing debate in Chinese psycholinguistics is whether subject-relative clauses or object-relative clauses are more difficult to process. The current study asks what happens when structure and plausibility are pitted against each other in Chinese relative clause processing. Chinese relative clause structures and semantic plausibility were manipulated to create both plausible and implausible versions of subject- and object-relative clauses. This method has been used in other languages (e.g., English) to elicit thematic role reversal comprehension errors. Importantly, these errors—as well as online processing difficulties—are especially frequent in implausible versions of dispreferred (noncanoncial) structures. If one relative clause structure in Chinese is highly dispreferred, the structural factor and plausibility factor should interact additively. If, however, the structures are relatively equally difficult to process, then there should be only a main effect of plausibility. Sentence reading times as well as analyses on lexical interest areas revealed that Chinese readers used plausibility information almost exclusively when reading the sentences. Relative clause structure had no online effect and small but consistent offline effects. Taken together, the results support a slight preference in offline comprehension for Chinese subject-relative clauses, as well as a central role for semantic plausibility, which appears to be the dominant factor in online processing and a strong determinant of offline comprehension.

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