Vocabulary test format and differential relations to age

The effects of EFL wordlist and proficiency on vocabulary knowledge

Introduction

The Gaokao Word List (GWL) in China serves as a guideline for learning L2 vocabulary, but there are few studies verifying its effect on university EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge.

Method

This study investigated the effects of the GWL and EFL proficiency on 66 Chinese university EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge by administering word recognition tests.

Results and discussion

The results showed that: (1) the GWL had significant effects on participants' receptive vocabulary knowledge; (2) EFL proficiency had significant effects on participants' word recognition, without interaction with the GWL. These findings were discussed through the lens of frequency of exposure, accounting for the overwhelming GWL effect on learners' vocabulary knowledge. We suggest EFL proficiency be taken into consideration when the GWL is revised in the future, to smoothen the transition in vocabulary learning from high school to university, and improve vocabulary learning efficiency.

How well does the discrepancy between semantic and letter verbal fluency performance distinguish Alzheimer's dementia from typical aging?

In Alzheimer's dementia (AD), greater declines in semantic fluency (SF) relative to letter fluency (LF) have been assumed to reflect semantic disintegration. However, the same pattern is observed in typical aging and neurodegenerative disorders besides AD. We examined this assumption by comparing different aspects of SF and LF performance in older adults with and without dementia, and identifying which verbal fluency measures most clearly distinguish AD from typical aging. Verbal fluency data were compared from 109 individuals with AD and 66 typically aging adults. Correct items, clusters, and errors were analyzed using both raw counts and proportions. Regression analyses examined Task-by-Group interactions and the impact of demographic variables on verbal fluency measures. ROC analyses examined the sensitivity and specificity of the different outcome measures. In regressions, interactions were found for raw but not proportional data, indicating that different group patterns were driven largely by the number of correct items produced. Similarly, in ROC analyses, raw SF totals showed stronger discriminability between groups than either raw discrepancy scores (SF-LF) or discrepancy ratios (SF/LF). Age and cognitive status (MMSE) were the strongest individual predictors of performance. Findings suggest that AD entails quantitative declines in verbal fluency, but qualitatively similar patterns of performance relative to typically aging adults. Thus, SF declines in AD seem to be at least partially attributable to an exaggeration of the underlying mechanisms common to typical aging, and do not necessarily implicate semantic disintegration.

Psychometric Properties of the Polish Version of the Frontotemporal Dementia Knowledge Scale

INTRODUCTION

Taking into account a progressive increase in the number of individuals affected by dementia and the importance of being knowledgeable about its symptoms, it has become crucial to develop well-validated instruments for measuring knowledge about dementia. The aim of this study was to translate and validate the Frontotemporal Dementia Knowledge Scale (FTDKS) in a Polish population.

METHODS

The FTDKS was translated into the Polish language based on the most highly recommended methodological approaches for translating and validating instruments for cross-cultural healthcare research. Psychometric properties were evaluated in a sample of 869 individuals (general population, healthcare professionals, and caregivers) who completed the questionnaire. The reliability of the FTDKS was tested as an internal consistency using both Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega factor analysis. The convergent and discriminant validity was assessed using the Heterotrait-monotrait Ratio of Correlation between scores of FTDKS, vocabulary intelligence, and Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale (AKDS).

RESULTS

The results indicate that the scale produces satisfactory psychometric properties (Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega over 0.80). The internal consistency was slightly higher in the population of healthcare professionals and caregivers than among the general population.

DISCUSSION

The internal consistency of the Polish version of FTDKS demonstrates a similar validity to the original version. The FTDKS can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions among caregivers, healthcare professionals, and the general population.

Comparison of Logarithmic Reading Charts for Visual Assessment in Normally Sighted Participants

SIGNIFICANCE

Logarithmic reading charts provide standardized measures of reading performance. Here we show that existing charts provide equivalent assessments of visual aspects of reading that are in good agreement with traditional measures of visual acuity and seem uninfluenced by cognitive (linguistic) factors.

PURPOSE

The aims of this study were to (1) determine the equivalence of logarithmic charts of sentence and word reading, (2) evaluate the relationship between reading chart performance and more traditional measures of visual assessment, and (3) establish the influence of linguistic factors on reading chart performance.

METHODS

In a sample of 82 normally sighted participants, we determined performance on the reading measures (e.g., reading acuity, reading speed, critical print size) of the following logarithmic charts of sentence and word reading: The Colenbrander English Continuous Text Near Vision Card, Radner Reading Chart, Minnesota Reading Acuity Chart, and Smith-Kettlewell Reading Chart. In doing so, we compared performance on reading measures between charts and with performance on more traditional measures of visual assessment (uncrowded and crowded letter acuity, stereoacuity, accommodation) and cognitive measures of word knowledge and ability (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Vocabulary Subtest, National Adult Reading Test).

RESULTS

Factor analysis confirmed that performance on the reading measures (reading acuity, reading speed, critical print size) was equivalent across charts. Reading test performance was also related to more traditional measures of vision, the most consistent of which were significant associations between reading acuity and acuity for single-letter optotypes. There were no significant associations between reading chart performance and cognitive measures of word knowledge and ability.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings presented here suggest that logarithmic charts composed of sentences and words represent an alternative to traditional letter acuity testing. This is particularly the case for measures of reading acuity.

The predictors of general knowledge: Data from a Spanish megastudy

Studies on sociodemographic data and crystallized intelligence have often struggled to recruit enough participants to achieve sufficient validity. However, the advent of the internet now allows this problem to be solved through the creation of megastudies. Yet, this methodology so far has only been used in studies on vocabulary size, while general knowledge, another key component of crystallized intelligence, remains unexamined. In the present study, regression models were used to examine the impact of sociodemographic variables—gender, age, years of study and socioeconomic status—on general knowledge scores. The sample comprised 48,234 participants, each of whom answered 60 general knowledge questions, their data being fully available online. Men were found to score higher than women in general knowledge. Years of study and socioeconomic status acted as strong and weak positive predictors, respectively. Age acted as a strong positive predictor until the age of 50, where it became progressively detrimental. These results are discussed relative to other studies on crystallized intelligence, highlighting the need to study each of its components individually.

Interpretation of familiar metaphors and proverbs by Polish people in middle and late adulthood

BACKGROUND

The ability to understand figurative language, including metaphors and proverbs, decreases with age, although the phenomenon is not universal. Cognitive capacities and education play an important role in the competence connected with figurative language use and comprehension in people during the second half of life.

AIMS

To identify possible similarities and differences in task performance by subjects representing middle adulthood (40-49 and 50-59 years old) and late adulthood (60-69 and 70-92 years old). Additionally, the analyses took into account factors significantly affecting the results, that is, tasks type (metaphors versus proverbs), the way the answer is given (open-ended versus multiple choice) and types of answers (abstract and concrete). This study also aimed to identify some cognitive correlates of task completion.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

A total of 86 Caucasian subjects, aged 40-92 years, participated in this study (M_{whole group} = 62.37, SD = 15.53); the group included 20 subjects aged 40-49 years (M_age = 45.4; SD = 3.05), 20 aged 50-59 years (M_age = 55.50; SD = 2.64), 20 aged 60-69 years (M_age = 64.40; SD = 2.78), and 26 aged 70-92 years (M_age = 79.15; SD = 6.27). A total of 20 well-known Polish metaphors and 20 popular Polish proverbs were used to assess the level of proverb and metaphor comprehension. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale and Vocabulary subtest of the Polish version of WAIS-R were applied to assess the cognitive functions.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

The results of the analyses suggest that there are differences as well as certain similarities between the groups. At 70+ years of age, the ability to explain and comprehend metaphors and proverbs decreases when compared with younger adults. In the 70+ group, the ability to grasp the meaning of both metaphors and proverbs is similar, unlike in the younger groups which present a better ability to explain and comprehend metaphors than proverbs. The conditions related to the types of tasks, that is, spontaneous interpretation and choice of responses, do not affect scores of the oldest subjects.

CONCLUSIONS

The analysis of response types, that is, abstract versus concrete, shows that, compared with younger groups, people aged 70+ years tend to less frequently provide abstract explanations and more often give concrete (but correct) responses, referring to situational data or examples from everyday life. Moreover, attention, short-term/delayed memory and lexical reserve influence the ability to use and comprehend figurative language to a varied degree.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject Studies focusing on metaphor and proverb interpretation by people in middle and late adulthood are rather scarce, and what is more, they provide inconclusive results. Research has shown that the capacities related to attention and memory, as well as language resources and executive functions, all deteriorate in older people, which negatively affects their ability to understand metaphors and proverbs. However, varied methods are applied to assess these skills, which may explain why the related findings are inconsistent. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The novelty of this study lies in the fact that the analyses took into account the type of task (metaphors versus proverbs), the method of responding (open-ended versus multiple-choice) and the nature of the answer (abstract versus concrete). This allowed us to highlight intergroup differences and to show specific characteristics of proverb and metaphor spontaneous interpretation and choice of correct answers. The results were compared among the participants representing relatively narrow age ranges classified as middle and late adulthood. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Analysis of how people in middle and late adulthood interpret metaphors and proverbs might constitute an element of preliminary screening assessment showing whether a decrease in this capacity is in the normal range or if it reflects a serious cognitive decline. It would be worthwhile if the diagnostic process included varied task designs, that is, both metaphors and proverbs, as well as spontaneous interpretation and multiple-choice, as well as varied types of responses.

How to improve social communication in aging: Pragmatic and cognitive interventions

Among all aspects of the linguistic and communicative competence, pragmatics seems especially vulnerable in aging, due also to cognitive decline. However, pragmatics has never been considered as an intervention target in healthy aging. Here we tested the effects of a novel training program to improve pragmatics (PragmaCom) in older adults, compared with an active cognitive control group in a randomized-controlled-trial design. Both the PragmaCom group and the control group improved in pragmatic skills such as understanding metaphors and avoiding off-topic speech, indicating that it is possible to improve pragmatics in aging both with a specific training and with a cognitive training. Individual cognitive factors predicted pragmatic improvement in the control group, while in the PragmaCom group benefits were less dependent on individual characteristics. We discuss the results in terms of pragmatic plasticity, highlighting the importance of these findings for promoting older adults' social communication and well-being.

Explaining vocabulary knowledge in adulthood through comparison with knowledge of math concepts

Previous research has assumed that all types of semantic knowledge are similarly affected by aging. We investigate whether knowledge of vocabulary and math concepts show comparable lifetime change. A sample of 252 participants aged 17-91 completed two multiple-choice tasks that examined knowledge of infrequent word meanings and knowledge of basic math concepts. Up to age 64, vocabulary scores improved, whereas math scores remained stable. After that age, vocabulary scores remained stable, while math scores declined. We suggest that the fact that the learning and use of infrequent vocabulary are incidental, incremental, and contextual contributes to maintenance of word knowledge into old age. In contrast, learning of basic math concepts occurs relatively early in life in an intentional manner, and both learning and use of these concepts involve constrained contexts. Thus, the nature of the acquisition and use of semantic knowledge across the lifespan affects its fate in old age.

How do Spanish speakers read words? Insights from a crowdsourced lexical decision megastudy

Vocabulary size seems to be affected by multiple factors, including those that belong to the properties of the words themselves and those that relate to the characteristics of the individuals assessing the words. In this study, we present results from a crowdsourced lexical decision megastudy in which more than 150,000 native speakers from around 20 Spanish-speaking countries performed a lexical decision task to 70 target word items selected from a list of about 45,000 Spanish words. We examined how demographic characteristics such as age, education level, and multilingualism affected participants' vocabulary size. Also, we explored how common factors related to words like frequency, length, and orthographic neighbourhood influenced the knowledge of a particular item. Results indicated important contributions of age to overall vocabulary size, with vocabulary size increasing in a logarithmic fashion with this factor. Furthermore, a contrast between monolingual and bilingual communities within Spain revealed no significant vocabulary size differences between the communities. Additionally, we replicated the standard effects of the words' properties and their interactions, accurately accounting for the estimated knowledge of a particular word. These results highlight the value of crowdsourced approaches to uncover effects that are traditionally masked by small-sampled in-lab factorial experimental designs.

Resting-state and Vocabulary Tasks Distinctively Inform On Age-Related Differences in the Functional Brain Connectome

Most of the current knowledge about age-related differences in brain neurofunctional organization stems from neuroimaging studies using either a "resting state" paradigm, or cognitive tasks for which performance decreases with age. However, it remains to be known if comparable age-related differences are found when participants engage in cognitive activities for which performance is maintained with age, such as vocabulary knowledge tasks. A functional connectivity analysis was performed on 286 adults ranging from 18 to 80 years old, based either on a resting state paradigm or when engaged in vocabulary tasks. Notable increases in connectivity of regions of the language network were observed during task completion. Conversely, only age-related decreases were observed across the whole connectome during resting-state. While vocabulary accuracy increased with age, no interaction was found between functional connectivity, age and task accuracy or proxies of cognitive reserve, suggesting that older individuals typically benefits from semantic knowledge accumulated throughout one's life trajectory, without the need for compensatory mechanisms.

Aging deficits in naturalistic speech production and monitoring revealed through reading aloud

The current study investigated how aging affects production and self-correction of errors in connected speech elicited via a read aloud task. Thirty-five cognitively healthy older and 56 younger participants read aloud 6 paragraphs in each of three conditions increasing in difficulty: (a) normal, (b) nouns-swapped (in which nouns were shuffled across pairs of sentences in each paragraph), and (c) exchange (in which adjacent words in every two sentences were reversed in order). Reading times and errors increased with task difficulty, but self-correction rates were lowest in the nouns-swapped condition. Older participants read aloud more slowly, and after controlling for aging-related advantages in vocabulary knowledge, produced more speech errors (especially in the normal condition), and self-corrected errors less often than younger participants. Exploratory analysis of error types revealed that aging increased the rate of function word substitution errors (saying the instead of a), whereas younger participants omitted content words more often than did older participants. This pattern of aging deficits reveals powerful effects of vocabulary knowledge on speech production and suggests aging speakers can compensate for aging-related decline in control over speech production with their higher vocabulary knowledge and careful attention to speech planning in more difficult speaking conditions. These results suggest a model of speech production in which planning of speech is relatively automatic, whereas monitoring and self-correction are more attention-demanding, in turn leaving speech production relatively intact in aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Adults with Poor Reading Skills, Older Adults, and College Students: the Meanings They Understand During Reading Using a Diffusion Model Analysis

When a word is read in a text, the aspects of its meanings that are encoded should be those relevant to the text and not those that are irrelevant. We tested whether older adults, college students, and adults with poor literacy skills accomplish contextually relevant encoding. Participants read short stories, which were followed by true/false test sentences. Among these were sentences that matched the relevant meaning of a word in a story and sentences that matched a different meaning. We measured the speed and accuracy of responses to the test sentences and used a decision model to separate the information that a reader encodes from the reader's speed/accuracy tradeoff settings. We found that all three groups encoded meanings as contextually relevant. The findings illustrate how a decision-making model combined with tests of particular comprehension processes can lead to further understanding of reading skills.

Vocabulary Knowledge Predicts Lexical Processing: Evidence from a Group of Participants with Diverse Educational Backgrounds

Vocabulary knowledge is central to a speaker's command of their language. In previous research, greater vocabulary knowledge has been associated with advantages in language processing. In this study, we examined the relationship between individual differences in vocabulary and language processing performance more closely by (i) using a battery of vocabulary tests instead of just one test, and (ii) testing not only university students (Experiment 1) but young adults from a broader range of educational backgrounds (Experiment 2). Five vocabulary tests were developed, including multiple-choice and open antonym and synonym tests and a definition test, and administered together with two established measures of vocabulary. Language processing performance was measured using a lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, vocabulary and word frequency were found to predict word recognition speed while we did not observe an interaction between the effects. In Experiment 2, word recognition performance was predicted by word frequency and the interaction between word frequency and vocabulary, with high-vocabulary individuals showing smaller frequency effects. While overall the individual vocabulary tests were correlated and showed similar relationships with language processing as compared to a composite measure of all tests, they appeared to share less variance in Experiment 2 than in Experiment 1. Implications of our findings concerning the assessment of vocabulary size in individual differences studies and the investigation of individuals from more varied backgrounds are discussed.

Do age-related word retrieval difficulties appear (or disappear) in connected speech?

We conducted a comprehensive literature review of studies of word retrieval in connected speech in healthy aging and reviewed relevant aphasia research that could shed light on the aging literature. Four main hypotheses guided the review: (1) Significant retrieval difficulties would lead to reduced output in connected speech. (2) Significant retrieval difficulties would lead to a more limited lexical variety in connected speech. (3) Significant retrieval difficulties would lead to an increase in word substitution errors and in pronoun use as well as to greater dysfluency and hesitation in connected speech. (4) Retrieval difficulties on tests of single-word production would be associated with measures of word retrieval in connected speech. Studies on aging did not confirm these four hypotheses, unlike studies on aphasia that generally did. The review suggests that future research should investigate how context facilitates word production in old age.

Quantity and structure of word knowledge across adulthood

Cross-sectional and longitudinal data from moderately large samples of healthy adults confirmed prior findings of age-related declines in measures of the quantity of word knowledge beginning around age 65. Additional analyses were carried out to investigate the interrelations of different types of vocabulary knowledge at various periods in adulthood. Although the organizational structures were similar in adults of different ages, scores on tests with different formats had weaker relations to a higher-order vocabulary construct beginning when adults were in their 60's. The within-person dispersion among different vocabulary test scores was also greater after about 65 years of age. The discovery of quantitative decreases in amount of knowledge occurring at about the same age as qualitative shifts in the structure of knowledge raises the possibility that the two types of changes may be causally linked.

Stronger left-hemisphere lateralization in older versus younger adults while processing conventional metaphors

Thirty younger (age 20-30) and 30 older (age 69-85) right-handed Hebrew speakers performed a semantic judgement task while processing literal word pairs and conventional metaphors, presented in the divided visual field paradigm. Older adults responded more accurately to conventional metaphors in the right visual field/left hemisphere versus the left visual field/right hemisphere, whereas younger adults showed no lateralization. Vocabulary scores cancelled group differences in lateralization. An additional lexical decision task replicated the main finding of left-hemisphere lateralization in older but not in younger participants. We suggest that accumulated knowledge increases left-hemisphere lateralization on tasks of language comprehension in older relative to younger adults.

Performance of younger and older adults on tests of word knowledge and word retrieval: independence or interdependence of skills?

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between vocabulary knowledge and word retrieval in younger and older adults.

METHOD

Three tests of word retrieval and 2 tests of word knowledge were administered to 140 Hebrew-speaking adults, half of whom were younger (M(age) = 24.20 years) and half of whom were older (M(age) = 74.83 years).

RESULTS

Younger adults outperformed older adults on tests of retrieval, whereas older adults outperformed younger adults on tests of vocabulary, and no association was found between the 2 skills across the entire sample. Once age and education were taken into account, both skills contributed to the prediction of each other and were similarly related within each group. Older adults performed equally well when required to produce and recognize word meanings, whereas younger adults were better at recognition than at production.

CONCLUSIONS

Older age is associated with better knowledge and with retrieval difficulties, yet individual differences in vocabulary within each age group affect level of retrieval, and variability in search skills affects performance on vocabulary tests. Although the assessment of vocabulary is not free of retrieval demands, older adults as a group are more successful than are younger adults at producing word definitions, most likely because their knowledge is more complete.

Age-related differences in word-retrieval but not in meaning generation

This study examines age-associated changes in retrieval on a picture-naming task, phonemic and semantic fluency tasks, and the Homophone Meaning Generation Test (HMGT). The sample included 152 Hebrew-speaking adults, half young (mean age 22.75) and half old (mean age 76.05). Groups differed on the picture-naming task and on both verbal fluency tasks, but not on the HMGT. Age explained a greater share of the variance than did education level on these three tests, whereas the opposite pattern of results was seen on the HMGT. We suggest that age-related word finding difficulties are attenuated when performance allows for semantic rather than phonological access.

Natural and constrained language production as a function of age and cognitive abilities

Although it is often claimed that verbal abilities are relatively well maintained across the adult lifespan, certain aspects of language production have been found to exhibit cross-sectional differences and longitudinal declines. In the current project age-related differences in controlled and naturalistic elicited language production tasks were examined within the context of a reference battery of cognitive abilities in a moderately large sample of individuals aged 18-90. The results provide support for age-related increases in lexical sophistication and diversity at the discourse level, and declines in grammatical complexity in controlled and naturalistic contexts. Further, age-related decreases in facility with complex grammatical constructions in controlled sentence production were statistically independent of the cognitive abilities assessed in this project.

Age-related changes in the appreciation of novel metaphoric semantic relations

In the present study we tested the possibility that older adults differ from younger adults in their appreciation of metaphoric semantic relations, and that age-related changes occur due to the perception of novel metaphors. In the first experiment 35 younger (mean age?=?23.1) and 35 older adults (mean age?=?75.3) were asked to rate the plausibility of metaphoric, literal, and unrelated word pairs. Relative to young participants, older participants rated fewer expressions as metaphorically plausible. The second experiment was conducted to examine whether the findings of the first experiment could be accounted for by an age-associated difference in the appreciation of metaphors with different levels of familiarity. In the second experiment, 25 younger (mean age?=?24.4) and 25 older adults (mean age?=?77.5) were asked to rate the familiarity level of the plausible metaphoric expressions. Relative to young participants, older participants rated fewer expressions as novel and more expressions as familiar. The results suggest that novelty plays an important role in appreciating the plausibility of semantic relationships, and age-related changes are associated with the appreciation of the novelty of expressions.

Loss of basic lexical knowledge in old age

BACKGROUND

Basic lexical skills are hypothesised to be relatively preserved in mild dementia, but clinical studies have reported inconsistent results.

METHODS

More than 400 older Catholic nuns, priests and brothers recruited from groups across the USA completed annual evaluations for up to 15 years, died and underwent brain autopsy. Each clinical evaluation included administration of a 20-item word reading test and a 15-item vocabulary test, which were combined to form a composite measure of word knowledge. In a uniform neuropathological examination, Alzheimer's disease pathology was quantified with a composite index of plaques and tangles, and the presence of gross and microscopic cerebral infarctions and Lewy bodies was recorded.

RESULTS

The post-mortem level of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology was linearly related to rate of decline in word knowledge. Decline was nearly fourfold faster at a relatively high level of pathology (75th percentile) compared with a relatively low level (25th percentile). Neocortical (but not nigral or limbic) Lewy bodies and gross (but not microscopic) cerebral infarction were also associated with a more rapid decline in word knowledge. Effects for word reading and vocabulary were similar, except that gross cerebral infarction was associated with accelerated decline in vocabulary, but not in word reading.

CONCLUSION

Common neuropathological changes associated with late-life dementia impair word knowledge in old age, calling into question the use of word knowledge tests to estimate premorbid cognitive ability.

Individual differences, aging, and IQ in two-choice tasks

The effects of aging and IQ on performance were examined in three two-choice tasks: numerosity discrimination, recognition memory, and lexical decision. The experimental data, accuracy, correct and error response times, and response time distributions, were well explained by Ratcliff's (1978) diffusion model. The components of processing identified by the model were compared across levels of IQ (ranging from 83 to 146) and age (college students, 60-74, and 75-90 year olds). Declines in performance with age were not significantly different for low compared to high IQ subjects. IQ but not age had large effects on the quality of the evidence that was obtained from a stimulus or memory, that is, the evidence upon which decisions were based. Applying the model to individual subjects, the components of processing identified by the model for individuals correlated across tasks. In addition, the model's predictions and the data were examined for the "worst performance rule", the finding that age and IQ have larger effects on slower responses than faster responses.