认知作业年老化的比较研究

用言语—操作和人机对话两种方式完成１２项认知作业年老化比较研究,被试２４２人,４６－７５岁。结果表明：（１）一些作业（符号数字、视觉数字广度、听觉数字广度、词对联想学习、图象自由回忆和无意图形再认）成绩随年老明显下降,另一些作业（图象分类、卡片分类、心算和矩阵填图）成绩不随年老明显降低;（２）再次验证心算、符号数字、数字鉴别和计数四项非词语性作业速度随年老进行性减慢。     

成年人个性特征与某些认知作业的关系

采用NEO-FFI个性问卷研究了个性特征与记忆、问题解决及视觉搜索反应时的关系。作业难度均属中下。被试为20－85岁四组成年人120名。结果：（1）相关和多元逐步回归分析结果完全一致：外向性（E）对人姓回忆及图形再认有负性预测关系,开放性（O）对人姓回忆及猜图用策略百分比有正性预测关系。（2）控制年龄因素的偏相关结果表明,神经质分（N）和清图用策略百分比,E分和图形再认、人姓回忆,认真负责分（C）和数字、字母、汉字搜索反应时均呈负相关。（3）认知指标加入个人情况诸因素作为自变量与个性特征求多元逐步回归方程显示,解决问题方案数量与E分呈负性预测关系,心理状态等因素与个性预测影响更大。（4）认知作业与个性特征关系各年龄组结果不同,两者关系青年组和老老年组较大,这可能与不同年龄成年人神经系统功能状态差异有关。     

额区脑波年老化特点及其与某些认知能力的相关性

对１２０名中老年被试（４６－８０岁）,完成双额脑波年老化特点０及其与某些认知能力相关性的研究。认知能力测验共１２项作业,包括４项作业速度和１０项作业成绩共１４项指标。结果表明：（１）双额脑波α峰频率随年老低移,α功率随年老有增加趋势;（２）年老过程３项作业速度与双额α峰频率相关性显著,但仅“图象自由回忆”成绩与双额α峰频率及右额α功率相关性显著。     

年龄、作业难度和训练对成人记忆的影响

采用“联想学习”、“图象自由回忆”和“附加联想”三项目,对９０例成人（分为青年、老年和老老年组各３０例）进行记忆测查和训练,目的为探讨年龄,作业难度和训练对记忆的影响。结果表明：青年组记忆成绩明显高于老年和老老年组,后两组无显著差异;无关联想的年龄差异大于有关联想,作业难度扩大了年龄差异;各年龄组训练后记忆得到明显改善,并且训练扩大了年龄和作业易难的差异。由此可见,记忆受年龄、作业难度和训练三因素的相互作用,也再次证实了老年认知功能具有一定的可塑性。     

成人非字词作业速度的随龄减慢及其与汉字作业的比较

以３００名２０￣７９岁成人为被试,并以１０岁段划分为６个年龄组,完成了非字词作业速度的随龄减慢及其与汉字作业的比较研究。结果表明：（１）数字鉴别、数字旋转、心算、符号数字和图形空间定位五项非字词作业均随增龄而显著减慢;（２）元分析结果表明３０－３９岁组到７０－７９岁组５个年龄组上述非字词作业反应时均为２０－２９岁组的平方函数,而且,非字词作业速度减慢的程度在６０岁后明显增大;（３）符号数字和数字鉴     

速度与认知成绩及年龄关系的研究

应用累加成绩－反应时曲线比较研究了青年组与老年组五项作业速度与成绩之间的关系,这五项作业是数字旋转,心算、符号数字、汉字数字和图形空间定位,结果表明：（１）老年组五项作业的累加成绩－－反应时曲线均较青年组上升缓慢,表明老年组需要较长的反应时,便可获得与青年人相当的累加是分;（２）老年组累加成绩－反应时曲线上升的快慢还与作业的性质及难度有一定。上述结果表明,在所研究作业的难度范围内,速度减慢是老年人     

Alzheimer病与老年精神分裂症的诱发电位初步研究

1对象与方法11对象Alzheimer病（下简称AD组）：39例（男14，女25），随机选自上海市精神卫生中心、分部及松江协作病房，年龄65—85岁，平均74．l士59岁．病程1月一15年，平均为3．43士2．gi年。教育年限（Ed）0一五名分，平均5．0土5．2分，认知功能筛选量表（CASI）2－62分，平均27．6土159分。老年精神分裂症（下简称SS组）：34例（男ZI，女13），随机选自同上单位，年龄61－87岁，平均67．5士52岁。病程17－53年，平均病程33．75土8．69年，教育年限（Ed）0－16分，平均6．9土5．6分，认知功能筛选量表（CASI）18－99分，平均55…     

年老过程认知作业完成量与作业速度相互关系的研究

本工作应用自行设计的计算机逐级限速程序,研究了年老过程四项认知作业完成量与作业速度的相互关系。被试350人,46—75岁。研究结果表明:1、随着计算机所限时间的缩短,各项作业完成量均随年老下降迅速,作业完成量对于作业速度的依存关系随年老表现极为明显;2、在逐级限速条件下,四项认知作业完成量的年老敏感性顺序与作业速度的年老敏感性顺序基本相同,即是:符号数字、心算、计数和数字鉴别。     

老年人短时记忆特点的研究

本工作以50名青年作对照,对240名65—90岁正常老人的短时记忆特点进行了研究。结果看到:1.在逻辑故事记忆、图象自由回忆、数字广度和指向记忆四项记忆成绩上,均有随年老而衰退的明显趋势。其中除数字广度外,其他三项记忆在入老年后(65岁至90岁)有继续减退的趋势。在逻辑故事、指向记忆和总分上还见到有65岁和70岁组、75岁和80岁组成绩接近的现象;2.老年人顺背数字成绩较好,对刺激序列中末端刺激的正确回忆率较高,均说明老年人的初级记忆受损较少;3.四项记忆成绩比较,青年组故事分节分最高,然后依次为图象自由回忆、顺背数字和指向记忆,而老年组则无此明显顺序;4.文化因素对记忆成绩有明显影响。     

与年龄及认知功能相关的成人脑波功率涨落图特点

对１２０名２０－７９岁正常受试者完成了与年龄及认知功能相关的脑涨落图特点的研究。结果表明：（１）脑波优势涨落功率空间构型额低枕高梯度的随龄减小过程,在认知测验差组较好组明显;（２）脑波优势涨落功率受年龄与认知因素的交互影响集中于左前右后脑轴上;（３）脑波优势涨落功率前后梯度和左右不对称性变化表明,脑波活动的前后和左右调控可能在不同层次上发挥作用,并且,前后脑和左右脑的协调活动与认知功能有密切关系。上述结果说明,脑波功率涨落与认知功能及其老化过程有密切关系。     

Perception of Temporal Order: The Effects of Age,Sex, and Cognitive Factors

ABSTRACT

The present paper investigates the effects of age, sex, and cognitive factors on temporal-order perception. Nine temporal-order tasks were employed using two and four stimuli presented in the auditory and visual modalities. Significantly increased temporal-order thresholds (TOT) in the elderly were found for almost all tasks, while sex differences were only observed for two tasks. Multiple regression analyses show that the performance on most temporal-order tasks can be predicted by cognitive factors, such as speed of fluid reasoning, short-term memory, and attention. However, age was a significant predictor of TOT in three tasks using visual stimuli. We conclude (1) that age-related differences can often be attributed to cognitive factors involved in temporal-order perception, and (2) that the concept of temporal-order perception is more complex than implied by the current models.     

Age-of-acquisition effects in lexical and episodic memory tasks

This paper reports four experiments on the effects of word age of acquisition in verbal tasks. In all cases, multiple-regression analysis was used to assess the relative effects of age as opposed to other potentially relevant word attributes. Experiments 1 and 2 concerned lexical memory tasks. In Experiment 1, picture naming speeds were found to be mainly determined by picture codability and name age of acquisition. In Experiment 2, it was found that when subjects produced words in response to bigram cues, early acquired target words were more likely to be produced than later acquired words, even when frequency and other word attributes were taken into account. The remaining two experiments dealt with the episodic memory tasks of free recall and recognition. No age effects were found in these tasks. It was concluded that early age of acquisition facilitates retrieval from lexical memory but has no significant effect in episodic memory tasks.     

双语和双言对图片命名和分类的不对称影响

采用普通话-英语双语者、粤语-普通话双言者和普通话单言者为被试, 比较他们图片命名与图片分类的成绩。结果表明, 普通话-英语双语者用优势语言命名图片的反应时比普通话单语者显著长, 错误率显著高。在第4次和第5次重复呈现图片时, 普通话-英语双语者与普通话单语者的命名反应差异不显著。普通话-英语双语者与普通话单语者对图片分类的反应差异不显著。这表明, 双语影响图片命名却不影响图片分类。粤语-普通话双言者对图片命名和图片分类的反应模式和普通话-英语双语者一致, 表明粤语-普通话双言和普通话-英语双语有类似的认知机制。普通话和粤语是作为两种语言储存在粤语-普通话双言者的头脑中的。     

不同认知作业年老化特点的比较研究

本工作应用自行设计的软件程序和微机人机对话方式,完成六项认知作业的年老化特点的比较研究,被试506人,46—75岁。研究结果表明:1)“心算”和“符号数字”两项作业完成速度随年老迅速减慢,但测验成绩随年老缓慢降低,速度变化是该两项作业年老化过程的主要特点;2)“数字鉴别”和“计数”两项作业完成速度随年老减慢较缓;3)“双位数字顺序回忆”和“无意义图形再认”两项作业测验成绩随年老下降迅速,但前者更为明显;4)速度和成绩两项指标的个体差异均随年老有增大趋向。     

Procedural learning: A developmental study of motor sequence learning and probabilistic classification learning in school-aged children

In this study, we investigated motor and cognitive procedural learning in typically developing children aged 8–12 years with a serial reaction time (SRT) task and a probabilistic classification learning (PCL) task. The aims were to replicate and extend the results of previous SRT studies, to investigate PCL in school-aged children, to explore the contribution of declarative knowledge to SRT and PCL performance, to explore the strategies used by children in the PCL task via a mathematical model, and to see whether performances obtained in motor and cognitive tasks correlated. The results showed similar learning effects in the three age groups in the SRT and in the first half of the PCL tasks. Participants did not develop explicit knowledge in the SRT task whereas declarative knowledge of the cue–outcome associations correlated with the performances in the second half of the PCL task, suggesting a participation of explicit knowledge after some time of exposure in PCL. An increasing proportion of the optimal strategy use with increasing age was observed in the PCL task. Finally, no correlation appeared between cognitive and motor performance. In conclusion, we extended the hypothesis of age invariance from motor to cognitive procedural learning, which had not been done previously. The ability to adopt more efficient learning strategies with age may rely on the maturation of the fronto-striatal loops. The lack of correlation between performance in the SRT task and the first part of the PCL task suggests dissociable developmental trajectories within the procedural memory system.     

汉语词汇习得的年龄效应：语义假设的证据

通过三个实验考察了词汇加工中的习得年龄效应。实验一对比了汉字命名和图片命名中词汇习得的年龄效应,发现图片命名中存在着较大的词汇习得的年龄效应,汉字命名中没有出现这种效应。实验二和实验三分别采用语义范畴判断任务和图片语义分类任务,两个实验均发现了词汇习得的年龄效应。实验结果说明,词汇习得的年龄效应至少部分来源于语义加工的层次,结果支持了语义假设的观点     

Behavioral evidence for a differential modulation of semantic processing and lexical production by aging: a full linear mixed-effects modeling approach

The effect of normal aging on lexical production and semantic processing was evaluated in 72 healthy participants. Four tasks were used, picture naming (PN), picture categorization (PC), numerical judgment (NJ), and color judgment (CJ). The dependence of reaction time (RT) and correct responses with age was accounted by mixed-effects models. Participants underwent neuropsychological testing for verbal, executive, and memory functions. The RTs increase significantly with age for all tasks. After parceling out the non-specific cognitive decline, as reflected by the NJ task, the RT for the PN task decreases with age. Behavioral data were interpreted in relation with neuropsychological scores. Our results suggest that (a) naming becomes more automatic and semantic processing slightly more difficult with age, and (b) a non-specific general slowdown of cognitive processing occurs with age. Lexical production remained unaltered, based on compensatory automatic processes. This study also suggests a possible slowdown of semantic processing, even in normal aging.     

The reliability and stability of verbal working memory measures

The psychometric properties of several commonly used verbal working memory measures were assessed. One hundred thirty-nine individuals in five age groups (18–30, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and 80+ years) were tested twice (Time I and Time II) on seven working memory span measures (alphabet span, backward digit span, missing digit span, subtract 2 span, running item span, and sentence span for syntactically simple and complex sentences), with an interval of approximately 6 weeks between testing. There were significant effects of age on all but two of the tasks. All the measures had adequate internal consistency. Correlations between performances at Time I and Time II were significant for all the tasks, other than the missing digit span task. The magnitude of the correlations was similar across the age groups and ranged from .52 to .81. Classification of subjects into discrete memory span groups on the basis of a single measure was highly inconsistent across testing sessions and tasks. Classification into upper and lower quartiles was more stable than using a cutoff score for group membership or than classification into high-, medium-, and low-span groups. Correlational analyses showed that there was a moderate relationship between performances on many of the span tasks. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that six of the seven tasks reflected a common factor. Both test—retest reliability and stability of classification improved when a composite measure reflecting performance on several tasks was used.     

The varying effects of age of acquisition

There are a number of theories that suggest that age of acquisition (AoA) effects are not uniform across different tasks. Catling and Johnston (2006a) found greater AoA effects within an object-naming task than in a semantic classification task. They explained these findings by suggesting that AoA effects might accumulate according to how many levels of representation a task necessitates access to. Brysbaert and Ghyselinck (2006) explain the difference in AoA effects by proposing two distinct types of AoA (frequency dependent and frequency independent), the first accounted for by a connectionist-type mechanism and the latter situated at the interface between semantics and word production. Moreover, Moore, Smith-Spark, and Valentine (2004) and Holmes and Ellis (2006) have suggested that there are two loci of AoA effects: at the phonological level and somewhere within the perceptual level of representation. Again, this could account for the varying degrees of AoA effects. This study sets about testing these ideas by assessing the effect size of AoA across a series of different tasks that necessitate access to various levels of representation. Experiments 1–4 demonstrate significant effects of AoA in a novel picture–picture verification task, an object classification task, a picture verification task, and an object-naming task. Experiment 5 showed no effects of initial phoneme on the naming of the critical objects used within Experiments 1–4. The implication of the varying AoA effect sizes found within Experiments 1–4 in relation to explanations of AoA are discussed.