Cognitive Mediators of Age-Related Differences in Language Comprehension and Verbal Memory Performance |
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| Authors: | Martial Van der Linden Michel Hupet Pierre Feyereisen Marie-Anne Schelstraete Yves Bestgen Raymond Bruyer |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology , Stockholm University , Stockholm, Sweden Inn@psychmax.psychology.su.se;3. Department of Psychology , Stockholm University , Stockholm, Sweden;4. Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Wilhelms University , Münster, Germany;5. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , Erasmus University Medical School , Rotterdam, The Netherlands;6. H?pital de la Salpêtrière , Paris, France |
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| Abstract: | The present study tried to specify how much processing speed, working memory capacity, and inhibition capability contribute to the effects of aging on language performance. An individual-differences approach was used to examine the component processes that predict performance in language comprehension and verbal long-term memory tasks. A total of 151 participants aged 31-80 completed language processing tasks and a battery of tasks designed to assess processing speed, working memory, and resistance to interference. Latent-construct structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships of these factors and age to different types of language tasks. The best fit model showed first that all the significant relationships between age and language performance are mediated through reductions in speed, resistance to interference, and working memory; this confirms the validity of the general factor approach of age-related differences in cognitive performance. The best fit model, however, also showed that the contribution of speed and resistance to interference is indirect and mediated by working memory, which appears to play a crucial role in explaining age-related differences in language performance. |
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