Work

The Effects of Varying Task Priorities on Language Production by Young and Older Adults

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: The present study compared how varying task priorities affected young and older adults' language production. Both young and older adults responded to monetary incentives to vary their performance when simultaneously talking and tracking a pursuit rotor. Tracking performance improved when they were rewarded for tracking and declined when they were rewarded for talking. Both young and older adults also spoke more slowly when rewarded for tracking and more rapidly when rewarded for talking. Young produced less complex sentences when rewarded for tracking and produced more complex sentences when rewarded for talking. However, older adults did not vary their grammatical complexity as a function of monetary incentives. These results are consistent with prior studies suggesting that older adults use a simplified speech register in response to dual-task demands.

Source: Experimental Aging Research

DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2011.554513

Authors: Susan Kemper, RaLynn Schmalzried, Ruth Herman, Deepthi Mohankumar

Institution: University of Kansas

Language: English

Topic: Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute on Aging, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Dual Tasks Costs to Adults' Language Production, Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (KIDDRC), Core Center for BioBehavioral Sciences of Communication Disorders