Aging and the vulnerability of speech to dual task demands

Susan Kemper; RaLynn Schmalzried; Lesa Hoffman; Ruth Herman

doi:10.1037/a0020000

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Aging and the vulnerability of speech to dual task demands

Journal article

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Peer reviewed

Aging and the vulnerability of speech to dual task demands

Susan Kemper, RaLynn Schmalzried, Lesa Hoffman and Ruth Herman

Psychology and aging, Vol.25(4), pp.949-962

12/2010

DOI: 10.1037/a0020000

PMCID: PMC3050491

PMID: 21186917

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Abstract

Tracking a digital pursuit rotor task was used to measure dual task costs of language production by young and older adults. Tracking performance by both groups was affected by dual task demands: time on target declined and tracking error increased as dual task demands increased from the baseline condition to a moderately demanding dual task condition to a more demanding dual task condition. When dual task demands were moderate, older adults' speech rate declined but their fluency, grammatical complexity, and content were unaffected. When the dual task was more demanding, older adults' speech, like young adults' speech, became highly fragmented, ungrammatical, and incoherent. Vocabulary, working memory, processing speed, and inhibition affected vulnerability to dual task costs: vocabulary provided some protection for sentence length and grammaticality, working memory conferred some protection for grammatical complexity, and processing speed provided some protection for speech rate, propositional density, coherence, and lexical diversity. Further, vocabulary and working memory capacity provided more protection for older adults than for young adults although the protective effect of processing speed was somewhat reduced for older adults as compared to the young adults.

Age Factors

Humans

Aging - psychology

Neuropsychological Tests

Young Adult

Language

Stroop Test

Adolescent

Aged, 80 and over

Adult

Speech

Aged

Memory, Short-Term

Task Performance and Analysis

Details

Title: Subtitle: Aging and the vulnerability of speech to dual task demands
Creators: Susan Kemper - Gerontology Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. skemper@ku.edu
RaLynn Schmalzried
Lesa Hoffman
Ruth Herman
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Psychology and aging, Vol.25(4), pp.949-962
DOI: 10.1037/a0020000
PMID: 21186917
PMCID: PMC3050491
NLM abbreviation: Psychol Aging
ISSN: 1939-1498
eISSN: 1939-1498
Publisher: United States
Grant note: R01 AG025906 / NIA NIH HHS P30 HD002528 / NICHD NIH HHS R01 AG025906-01 / NIA NIH HHS P30 DC005803-079005 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC-005803 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-039001 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-069005 / NIDCD NIH HHS R01 AG025906-02 / NIA NIH HHS P30 DC005803 / NIDCD NIH HHS R01 AG025906-04 / NIA NIH HHS P30 HD-002528 / NICHD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-049001 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-059001 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-019001 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-029001 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC005803-089005 / NIDCD NIH HHS R01 AG025906-03 / NIA NIH HHS R01 AG025906-05 / NIA NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 12/2010
Academic Unit: Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
Record Identifier: 9983993488602771

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