Age-Related Increases in Verbal Knowledge Are Not Associated With Word Finding Problems in the Cam-CAN Cohort: What You Know Won’t Hurt You

Meredith A. Shafto, Lori E. James, Lise Abrams, Lorraine K. Tyler and Cam-CAN

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2017, vol. 72, issue 1, 100-106

Abstract: Objective: We tested the claim that age-related increases in knowledge interfere with word retrieval, leading to word finding failures. We did this by relating a measure of crystallized intelligence to tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states and picture naming accuracy.Method: Participants were from a large (N = 708), cross-sectional (aged 18–88 years), population-based sample from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience cohort (Cam-CAN; www.cam-can.com). They completed (a) the Spot-the-Word Test (STW), a measure of crystallized intelligence in which participants circled the real word in word/nonword pairs, (b) a TOT-inducing task, and (c) a picture naming task.Results: Age and STW independently predicted TOTs, with higher TOTs for older adults and for participants with lower STW scores. Tests of a moderator model examining interactions between STW and age indicated that STW was a significant negative predictor of TOTs in younger adults, but with increasing age, the effect size gradually approached zero. Results using picture naming accuracy replicated these findings.Discussion: These results do not support the hypothesis that lifelong knowledge acquisition leads to interference that causes an age-related increase in TOTs. Instead, crystallized intelligence supports successful word retrieval, although this relationship weakens across adulthood.

Keywords: Word retrieval; Naming; Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT); Knowledge; Interference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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