Effects of age, working memory, and word order on passive-sentence comprehension: Evidence from a verb-final language

Jee Eun Sung; Jae Keun Yoo; Soo Eun Lee; Bora Eom

doi:10.1017/S1041610217000047

Effects of age, working memory, and word order on passive-sentence comprehension: Evidence from a verb-final language

Jee Eun Sung, Jae Keun Yoo, Soo Eun Lee, Bora Eom

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of working-memory (WM) capacity on age-related changes in abilities to comprehend passive sentences when the word order was systematically manipulated. Methods: A total of 134 individuals participated in the study. The sentence-comprehension task consisted of the canonical and non-canonical word-order conditions. A composite measure of WM scores was used as an index of WM capacity. Results: Participants exhibited worse performance on sentences with non-canonical word order than canonical word order. The two-way interaction between age and WM was significant, suggesting that WM effects were greater than age effects on the task. Conclusions: WM capacity effects on passive-sentence comprehension increased dramatically as people aged, suggesting that those who have larger WM capacity are less vulnerable to age-related changes in sentence-comprehension abilities. WM capacity may serve as a cognitive reserve associated with sentence-comprehension abilities for elderly adults.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	939-948
Number of pages	10
Journal	International Psychogeriatrics
Volume	29
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610217000047
State	Published - 1 Jun 2017

Keywords

aging
canonicity of word order
sentence comprehension
Working-memory capacity

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1017/S1041610217000047

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title = "Effects of age, working memory, and word order on passive-sentence comprehension: Evidence from a verb-final language",

abstract = "Background: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of working-memory (WM) capacity on age-related changes in abilities to comprehend passive sentences when the word order was systematically manipulated. Methods: A total of 134 individuals participated in the study. The sentence-comprehension task consisted of the canonical and non-canonical word-order conditions. A composite measure of WM scores was used as an index of WM capacity. Results: Participants exhibited worse performance on sentences with non-canonical word order than canonical word order. The two-way interaction between age and WM was significant, suggesting that WM effects were greater than age effects on the task. Conclusions: WM capacity effects on passive-sentence comprehension increased dramatically as people aged, suggesting that those who have larger WM capacity are less vulnerable to age-related changes in sentence-comprehension abilities. WM capacity may serve as a cognitive reserve associated with sentence-comprehension abilities for elderly adults.",

keywords = "aging, canonicity of word order, sentence comprehension, Working-memory capacity",

author = "Sung, {Jee Eun} and Yoo, {Jae Keun} and Lee, {Soo Eun} and Bora Eom",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of South Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2014S1A5A8018080 and NRF-2016S1A5B6913884). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 International Psychogeriatric Association.",

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doi = "10.1017/S1041610217000047",

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T1 - Effects of age, working memory, and word order on passive-sentence comprehension

T2 - Evidence from a verb-final language

AU - Sung, Jee Eun

AU - Yoo, Jae Keun

AU - Lee, Soo Eun

AU - Eom, Bora

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of South Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2014S1A5A8018080 and NRF-2016S1A5B6913884). Publisher Copyright: © 2017 International Psychogeriatric Association.

PY - 2017/6/1

Y1 - 2017/6/1

N2 - Background: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of working-memory (WM) capacity on age-related changes in abilities to comprehend passive sentences when the word order was systematically manipulated. Methods: A total of 134 individuals participated in the study. The sentence-comprehension task consisted of the canonical and non-canonical word-order conditions. A composite measure of WM scores was used as an index of WM capacity. Results: Participants exhibited worse performance on sentences with non-canonical word order than canonical word order. The two-way interaction between age and WM was significant, suggesting that WM effects were greater than age effects on the task. Conclusions: WM capacity effects on passive-sentence comprehension increased dramatically as people aged, suggesting that those who have larger WM capacity are less vulnerable to age-related changes in sentence-comprehension abilities. WM capacity may serve as a cognitive reserve associated with sentence-comprehension abilities for elderly adults.

AB - Background: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of working-memory (WM) capacity on age-related changes in abilities to comprehend passive sentences when the word order was systematically manipulated. Methods: A total of 134 individuals participated in the study. The sentence-comprehension task consisted of the canonical and non-canonical word-order conditions. A composite measure of WM scores was used as an index of WM capacity. Results: Participants exhibited worse performance on sentences with non-canonical word order than canonical word order. The two-way interaction between age and WM was significant, suggesting that WM effects were greater than age effects on the task. Conclusions: WM capacity effects on passive-sentence comprehension increased dramatically as people aged, suggesting that those who have larger WM capacity are less vulnerable to age-related changes in sentence-comprehension abilities. WM capacity may serve as a cognitive reserve associated with sentence-comprehension abilities for elderly adults.

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KW - canonicity of word order

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ER -

Effects of age, working memory, and word order on passive-sentence comprehension: Evidence from a verb-final language

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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