Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Conversation is an essential communication tool for daily life, but it also relies on a variety of cognitive processes and older adults have been shown to experience conversation difficulties due to cognitive ageing.Prior research has examined the effects of cognitive aging on the component cognitive process.However, recent studies indicate that conversations simultaneously involve the dual tasks of speech comprehension and speech planning that can be challenging for older adults.This paper reviews the cognitive processes involved in conversation, the effects of cognitive aging, and the specific conversation difficulties exhibited by older adults.The paper also reexamines the relationship between the dual tasks of listening comprehension and speech planning and the conversational difficulties of older adults.The results indicate that some of the conversation dif ficulties reported in prior studies may be due to dual-task ef fects and may also result from compensatory strategies employed to avoid these dual tasks, rather than being a direct consequence of dual-task performance.Moreover, further investigations of the dual tasks and the conversational difficulties of older adults may resolve the inconsistencies within the results of prior studies.
Institution: University of Tsukuba
Language: Japanese
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7163783595