TY - JOUR
T1 - Age-related differences in the retrieval of phonologically similar words during sentence processing
T2 - Evidence from ERPs
AU - Karimi, Hossein
AU - Diaz, Michele
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was funded by NIH Grant R01 AG034138 (M.T.D.). We thank Caitlin Little, Emma Domico, and Peter Weber for assistance with data collection and coding. We also thank the staff and scientists at the Center for Language Science (CLS), the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center (SLEIC), and the Language and Aging lab at the Pennsylvania State University for their support and feedback. The authors declare no conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, that would preclude a fair review or publication of this manuscript. The full list of stimuli, the raw data, as well as the full analysis results are uploaded to the Open Science Framework, and can be accessed at: https://osf.io/75qyz/.
Funding Information:
This project was funded by NIH Grant R01 AG034138 (M.T.D.). We thank Caitlin Little, Emma Domico, and Peter Weber for assistance with data collection and coding. We also thank the staff and scientists at the Center for Language Science (CLS), the Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center (SLEIC), and the Language and Aging lab at the Pennsylvania State University for their support and feedback. The authors declare no conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, that would preclude a fair review or publication of this manuscript. The full list of stimuli, the raw data, as well as the full analysis results are uploaded to the Open Science Framework, and can be accessed at: https://osf.io/75qyz/ .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - We investigated how phonologically similar words are encoded and retrieved from memory during sentence processing across younger and older adults. Critical sentences included two phonologically similar or dissimilar noun phrases (henceforth NPs) followed by a pronoun. We examined brain activity time-locked to the onsets of the second NP, and the pronoun to investigate the encoding and retrieval of the NPs, respectively. Encoding the second NP resulted in smaller N400 amplitudes when the preceding NP was phonologically similar, for both younger and older adults, suggesting age-invariant encoding facilitation with increasing phonological similarity. However, when processing the pronoun, younger adults exhibited greater negativity following phonologically similar NPs, suggesting retrieval difficulty, whereas older adults showed greater negativity for pronouns following dissimilar NPs, suggesting an apparent retrieval facilitation. A post-hoc behavioral experiment suggested that older adults perform shallow processing during retrieval. The results suggest age-related decline in retrieval, but not encoding, of phonological information.
AB - We investigated how phonologically similar words are encoded and retrieved from memory during sentence processing across younger and older adults. Critical sentences included two phonologically similar or dissimilar noun phrases (henceforth NPs) followed by a pronoun. We examined brain activity time-locked to the onsets of the second NP, and the pronoun to investigate the encoding and retrieval of the NPs, respectively. Encoding the second NP resulted in smaller N400 amplitudes when the preceding NP was phonologically similar, for both younger and older adults, suggesting age-invariant encoding facilitation with increasing phonological similarity. However, when processing the pronoun, younger adults exhibited greater negativity following phonologically similar NPs, suggesting retrieval difficulty, whereas older adults showed greater negativity for pronouns following dissimilar NPs, suggesting an apparent retrieval facilitation. A post-hoc behavioral experiment suggested that older adults perform shallow processing during retrieval. The results suggest age-related decline in retrieval, but not encoding, of phonological information.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109139168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85109139168&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104982
DO - 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.104982
M3 - Article
C2 - 34153876
AN - SCOPUS:85109139168
VL - 220
JO - Brain and Language
JF - Brain and Language
SN - 0093-934X
M1 - 104982
ER -