ERIC Number: EJ1187760
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Aug
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Role of Lexical Status and Individual Differences for Perceptual Learning in Younger and Older Adults
Colby, Sarah; Clayards, Meghan; Baum, Shari
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v61 n8 p1855-1874 Aug 2018
Purpose: This study examined whether older adults remain perceptually flexible when presented with ambiguities in speech in the absence of lexically disambiguating information. We expected older adults to show less perceptual learning when top-down information was not available. We also investigated whether individual differences in executive function predicted perceptual learning in older and younger adults. Method: Younger (n = 31) and older adults (n = 27) completed 2 perceptual learning tasks composed of a pretest, exposure, and posttest phase. Both learning tasks exposed participants to clear and ambiguous speech tokens, but crucially, the lexically guided learning task provided disambiguating lexical information whereas the distributional learning task did not. Participants also performed several cognitive tasks to investigate individual differences in working memory, vocabulary, and attentionswitching control. Results: We found that perceptual learning is maintained in older adults, but that learning may be stronger in contexts where top-down information is available. Receptive vocabulary scores predicted learning across both age groups and in both learning tasks. Conclusions Implicit learning is maintained with age across different learning conditions but remains stronger when lexically biasing information is available. We find that receptive vocabulary is relevant for learning in both types of learning tasks, suggesting the importance of vocabulary knowledge for adapting to ambiguities in speech.
Descriptors: Age Differences, Ambiguity (Semantics), Individual Differences, Executive Function, Perception, Speech, Receptive Language, Vocabulary, Short Term Memory, Attention Control, Incidental Learning, Older Adults, Adults
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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