Age-related changes in processing speed modulate context use during idiomatic ambiguity resolution

ABSTRACT

The goal of the current study was to investigate whether age-related changes in processing speed, as indexed by verbal fluency, modulate context use in the resolution of ambiguous idioms (e.g., tie the knot). Younger and older adults completed a cross-modal priming experiment where they decided whether visual word targets were related in meaning to idiomatically or literally biased auditory sentence primes. Older adults with high verbal fluency, similar to younger adults, showed context-dependent facilitation in both biasing sentence contexts. In contrast, older adults with low verbal fluency did not show facilitation of literal meanings in literally biased sentence contexts, likely because they had difficultly inhibiting the dominant figurative meaning. These findings argue that age-related changes in context use during ambiguity resolution are restricted to older adults with reduced processing speed. The results also suggest that verbal fluency may reflect the speed in recruiting frontally-mediated selection mechanisms during ambiguity resolution.     

Increasing Levels of Semantic Verbal Fluency in Elderly English Adults

ABSTRACT

Analyses incorporating large independent population-based samples and identical measures are needed to investigate recent trends in cognitive function. Nationally representative independent cohorts of community living individuals in England aged 65 years or older from the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study in 1991 (n = 9458) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in 2002 (n = 5196) were compared. East Cambridgeshire participants aged 65–69 years in 1991 (n = 680) were also compared to an independent cohort examined in 1996 (n = 600). Semantic verbal fluency, as measured by the animal naming neuropsychological test, increased by 1.1 extra words a minute in England between 1991 and 2002 (95% CI 0.9, 1.3). A similar increase was also observed in East Cambridgeshire. Levels of semantic verbal fluency appear to have increased in the older English population, which may help to buffer the aging population from future increases in dementia.     

Separation of encoding fluency and item difficulty effects on judgements of learning

The fluency of information encoding has frequently been discussed as a major determinant of predicted memory performance indicated by judgements of learning (JOLs). Previous studies established encoding fluency effects on JOLs. However, it is largely unknown whether fluency takes effect above and beyond the effects of item difficulty. We therefore tested whether encoding fluency still affects JOLs when numerous additional cues indicating the difficulty of an item are available as well. In three experiments, participants made JOLs for another participant while observing his or her self-paced study phase. However, study times were swapped in one experimental condition, so that items with short study times (indicating high fluency) were presented for long durations, whereas items with long study times (indicating low fluency) were presented for short durations. Results showed that both item difficulty and encoding fluency affected JOLs. Thus, encoding fluency in itself is indeed an important cue for JOLs that does not become redundant when difficulty information is available in addition. This observation lends considerable support to the ease-of-processing hypothesis.     

Effects of processing style on responsiveness to affective stimuli and processing fluency

In the present study, we provide direct evidence for effects of global versus local processing on responsiveness to and reliance on affective information in judgement and decision-making. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed an increased responsiveness to affective stimuli among participants in a global processing mode. Experiment 3 showed similar effects for processing fluency; participants adopting a global processing style showed an increased reliance on fluency. Experiment 4 replicated our findings in a more mundane judgement task in which participants judged apartments. We discuss our findings in relation to the distinction between intuitive versus deliberative modes of thinking.     

Domain‐General and Domain‐Specific Creative‐Thinking Tests: Effects of Gender and Item Content on Test Performance

The study examined the effects of gender and item content of domain‐general and domain‐specific creative‐thinking tests on four subscale scores of creative‐thinking (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration). Chinese tenth‐grade students (234 males and 244 females) participated in the study. Domain‐general creative thinking was measured by using two domain‐independent items—box and newspaper. Domain‐specific creative thinking was measured in the domain of history by two history‐specific items—school uniform and health food—that were part of lessons in modern Chinese history. Domain‐general creative‐thinking scores were not different across gender in any of the four subscales. In domain‐specific creative thinking, female students produced more responses (fluency) and more categories of ideas (flexibility), and more detailed answers (elaboration) on both items than did males. Gender difference was not found in originality. Item effects were significant in both general and specific creative‐thinking scores, with higher fluency, flexibility, and elaboration for the newspaper than the box item, and higher fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration for the school uniform than the health food item. The findings on both gender and item effects support the contention that personal interest and life experience influence the generation of creative solutions. The finding that gender did not differ in domain‐general creative‐thinking was expected, as the two general items (box and newspaper) are experienced similarly by both genders. As most of the creative‐thinking tests are influenced by individuals' experience beyond creative‐thinking ability, judicial evaluation and use of creative‐thinking scores are underscored.     

Searching for the Right Word: Performance on Four Word-Retrieval Tasks Across Childhood

Word retrieval was assessed in 207 normally developing Hebrew-speaking children aged 8–17 through four tasks: picture naming, phonemic fluency, semantic fluency, and homophone meaning generation (HMGT). Scores on all tests correlated positively and significantly with participant age. Yet, age effects and the correlation between age and test scores were weakest for the naming test and strongest for the HMGT. We discuss the nature of the word search involved in each task and suggest that the more executive demands required by a test the steeper the slope of performance increase on this test.     

105例额叶、非额叶肿瘤患者词语流畅性作业的比较研究

让４８例额叶肿瘤患者,２６例颞叶肿瘤患者,２６例顶枕叶肿瘤患者,５例额颞肿瘤或颞顶肿瘤患者（全部病人分为左脑肿瘤５６例,右脑肿瘤４９例）说同类词,说非其类词及Ｓｔｒｏｏｐ测验。结果表明：１．额叶组说同类词总和明显低于颞叶组。２．额叶组读色字及读字色两项任务所用时间明显长于颞叶组及顶枕叶组。３．额叶组读色字及字色出现的错误频率明显高于正常人组及顶枕叶组。４．左脑肿瘤组说同类词及读黑色、色字及颜色命名的成绩明显低于右脑肿瘤组。资料提示：额叶肿瘤比颞叶与顶枕叶肿瘤、左脑肿瘤比右脑肿瘤更容易影响被试的词语记忆能力、选择性注意能力及分类归属能力。     

Category structure affects the developmental trajectory of children's inductive inferences for both natural kinds and artefacts

Inductive reasoning is fundamental to human cognition, yet it remains unclear how we develop this ability and what might influence our inductive choices. We created novel categories in which crucial factors such as domain and category structure were manipulated orthogonally. We trained 403 4–9-year-old children to categorise well-matched natural kind and artefact stimuli with either featural or relational category structure, followed by induction tasks. This wide age range allowed for the first full exploration of the developmental trajectory of inductive reasoning in both domains. We found a gradual transition from perceptual to categorical induction with age. This pattern was stable across domains, but interestingly, children showed a category bias one year later for relational categories. We hypothesise that the ability to use category information in inductive reasoning develops gradually, but is delayed when children need to process and apply more complex category structures.     

Rhyme as reason in commercial and social advertising

This study investigated the rhyme‐as‐reason effect on new artificially created advertising slogans. Rhymes and non‐rhymes were in Experiment 1 and 2 compared in a between‐subjects design and in Experiment 3 in a within‐subjects design. The quality of the form and content of the slogans was always evaluated by separate groups. In Experiment 1, we found a strong preference for rhyming slogans as opposed to their non‐rhyming counterparts. Rhymes were rated as more likeable, more original, easier to remember, more suitable for campaigns, more persuasive and more trustworthy. In Experiment 2, social advertising messages were evaluated favorably in both rhyming and non‐rhyming versions. However, when participants directly compared rhymes and non‐rhymes on the same scale (Experiment 3), the difference between commercial and social advertising disappeared and for all slogans rhymes were clearly preferred to non‐rhymes in terms of both form and content. A detailed analysis revealed that the rhymes scoring high on formal aspects were also favored in the questionnaire investigating content aspects.     

Discrepant fluency increases subjective truth

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that perceptual fluency affects truth judgments especially when the fluency has changed. Participants were asked to judge the truth of statements that were printed in different colors. Perceptual fluency was manipulated by color contrast. Change versus no change of fluency was manipulated by using preceding statements that had the same or a different contrast. As expected, highly fluent statements were judged as more probably true than statements with a low fluency but this effect occurred only when the high fluency meant a change from previous fluency. The role of discrepancies in subjective experiences in terms of their informativeness for social judgments is discussed.