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Typical and Impaired Processing in Morphosyntax
Edited by Vincent Torrens
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 64] 2020
► pp. 239–277

Sentence reading in older adults with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment

The role of Working Memory and Interference Control

| National Distance Education University (UNED) | Center for Biomedical Technology (CTB)
| Center for Biomedical Technology (CTB) | Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
| Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
| Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
| Center for the Prevention of Cognitive Impairment
| Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
While language comprehension tends to be well preserved in older adults, the processing and comprehension of syntactically complex sentences might be influenced by age-related changes in Working Memory (WM) and Interference Control (IC). Further, aging can be accompanied by cognitive decline caused by neurological conditions such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), but its impact on on-line sentence processing has rarely been studied. We report a study of word-by-word reading times and comprehension of sentences with different syntactic complexity in young adults (n = 69) and two subgroups of older adults: healthy older adults (n = 32) and older adults with single- and multi-domain amnestic MCI (n = 21). The experimental protocol was based on a self-paced reading task and a variety of neuropsychological measures including Operation Span (WM) and Stroop (IC) tasks. Syntactic complexity was induced using Spanish embedded relative clauses varying subject- versus object-extraction of the antecedent noun phrase (canonical or non-canonical word order, respectively). Moreover, within non-canonical sentences, we distinguished between those that did or did not contain long-distance dependencies between the extracted object and embedded verb. All these manipulations were expected to lead to a gradual recruitment of IC and WM based on the complexity of the sentence structure. Comprehension was similar across groups, with differences explained by WM capacity. In both subgroups of older adults, the on-line processing of object extracted sentences was modulated by their available IC and WM resources, although older adults with MCI seem to recruit WM to a lesser extent. In conclusion, results suggest that IC and WM have a modulatory role in the processing and comprehension of syntactically complex sentences in older adults. Moreover, older adults with MCI seem to be particularly overwhelmed by WM demands during sentence processing and comprehension.
Keywords: sentence reading, executive processes, aging
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Working memory and sentence processing in older age
    • 1.2Interference Control and sentence processing in older age
    • 1.3Working Memory, Interference Control, and language in MCI
    • 1.4The current study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Procedure
      • 2.2.1Neuropsychological assessment of older adults
      • 2.2.2Working Memory assessment
      • 2.2.3Interference Control assessment
      • 2.2.4Self-paced reading
      • 2.2.5Off-line sentence comprehension assessment
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Sociodemographic and cognitive differences among groups
    • 3.2Self-paced reading
    • 3.3End-of-sentence verification probes
      • Relationship among reading times and comprehension accuracy
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Modulatory effects of WM across the RC
    • 4.2Modulatory effects of IC at RC closure and main verb
    • 4.3Effects on sentence comprehension
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 21 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.64.11mar
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