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Are semantic abilities related to language production in healthy younger and older adults?
Poster Session B, Wednesday, September 30, 4:30 - 6:30 pm, Wangari Maathai
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Michele Diaz1, Megan Nakamura1, Abigail Cosgrove1,2, Kathryn Walters1, Jie Yan1; 1Penn State University, 2Social, Life, & Engineering Sciences Imaging Center
Older adults generally have larger and more diverse vocabularies and broader life experiences (Verhaegen et al., 2002; Kavè & Halamish, 2015; Hills, 2025; Federmeier and Kutas, 2005; Hoffman, 2018). While a larger vocabulary is a clear cognitive benefit, having more words to organize may present concomitant challenges organizing and selecting words (Hoffman, 2019; Hills et al., 2013). One theoretical framework, the Controlled Semantic Cognition account, suggests that there is a distinction between the representation of knowledge and how we use that semantic information (Lambon Ralph, et al., 2017). This may be a particularly relevant theoretical lens for investigating age-related differences in semantic memory, as older adults show two distinct patterns in terms of knowledge and executive function, with knowledge being retained, and aspects of executive function showing age-related decline (e.g., Park et al., 2002). Additionally, although many aspects of language show small to no age-related differences, language production, particularly word retrieval difficulties, are commonly reported as one of the most frustrating age-related changes (Ossher, et al., 2013). Here we incorporate behavioral and fMRI data to examine the potential relationships between semantic processes and language production; and to assess semantic abilities as a potential mediator of age-related differences in language production. Younger (18 – 35 years old) and older adults (60 – 80 years old) completed behavioral assessments of vocabulary, speech (verbal fluency), and executive function (a color-word Stroop task). fMRI data were collected using tasks designed to assess language production (verbal fluency), knowledge (word similarity judgment), and semantic control (feature judgment task) using blocked designs. Verbal fluency tasks sampled sub-categories of animals and supermarket items across two different runs. Semantic tasks were based on previously published work by Hoffman and colleagues (2013). Data collection is currently underway, and preliminary results will be reported at the conference.
Topic Areas: Language Production, Meaning: Lexical Semantics