skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Advancing with age: Older adults excel in comprehension of novel metaphors.
Older adults may experience certain forms of cognitive decline, but some forms of semantic memory remain intact in older age. To address how metaphor comprehension changes with age and whether metaphor comprehension relies more heavily on analogical reasoning (supported by fluid intelligence) or on conceptual combination (supported by crystalized intelligence), we compared performance of younger and older adults. In two experiments, healthy older adults (54–88 years) scored lower on a measure of fluid intelligence (Ravens Progressive Matrices) but higher on a measure of crystalized intelligence (Mill Hill Vocabulary Test) relative to younger adults (18–34 years). Groups were equally successful in comprehending relatively easy metaphors (Study 1), but older adults showed a striking advantage over younger adults for novel literary metaphors (Study 2). Mixed-effects modeling showed that measures of fluid and crystalized intelligence each made separable contributions to metaphor comprehension for both groups, but older adults relied more on crystalized intelligence than did younger adults. These age-related dissociations clarify cognitive effects of aging and highlight the importance of crystalized intelligence for metaphor comprehension in both younger and older adults.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2022369
PAR ID:
10539723
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Psychological Association
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Psychology and Aging
ISSN:
0882-7974
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Metaphor and symbol)
    null (Ed.)
    We report a study examining the role of linguistic context in modulating the influences of individual differences in fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehension of literary metaphors. Three conditions were compared: no context, metaphor-congruent context, and literal-congruent context. Relative to the baseline no-context condition, the metaphor-congruent context facilitated comprehension of the metaphorical meaning whereas the literal-congruent context impaired it. Measures of fluid and crystalized intelligence both made separable contributions to predicting metaphor comprehension. The metaphor-congruent context selectively increased the contribution of crystalized verbal intelligence. These findings support the hypothesis that a supportive linguistic context encourages use of semantic integration in interpreting metaphors. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; (, Metaphor and symbol)
    Using poetic metaphors in the Serbian language, we identified systematic variations in the impact of fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehen-sion of metaphors that varied in rated aptness and familiarity. Overall, comprehension scores were higher for metaphors that were high rather than low in aptness, and high rather than low in familiarity. A measure of crystalized intelligence was a robust predictor of comprehension across the full range of metaphors, but especially for those that were either relatively unfamiliar or more apt. In contrast, individual differences associated with fluid intelligence were clearly found only for metaphors that were low in aptness. Superior verbal knowledge appears to be particularly important when trying to find meaning in novel metaphorical expressions, and also when exploring the rich interpretive potential of apt metaphors. The broad role of crystalized intelligence in metaphor comprehension is consistent with the view that metaphors are largely understood using semantic integration processes continuous with those that operate in understanding literal language. 
    more » « less
  3. ; (, PloS one)
    We examined oscillatory power in electroencephalographic recordings obtained while younger (18-30 years) and older (60+ years) adults studied lists of words for later recall. Power changed in a highly consistent way from word-to-word across the study period. Above 14 Hz, there were virtually no age differences in these neural gradients. But gradients below 14 Hz reliably discriminated between age groups. Older adults with the best memory performance showed the largest departures from the younger adult pattern of neural activity. These results suggest that age differences in the dynamics of neural activity across an encoding period reflect changes in cognitive processing that may compensate for age-related decline. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; (, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications)
    Abstract The efficacy of fake news corrections in improving memory and belief accuracy may depend on how often adults see false information before it is corrected. Two experiments tested the competing predictions that repeating fake news before corrections will either impair or improve memory and belief accuracy. These experiments also examined whether fake news exposure effects would differ for younger and older adults due to age-related differences in the recollection of contextual details. Younger and older adults read real and fake news headlines that appeared once or thrice. Next, they identified fake news corrections among real news headlines. Later, recognition and cued recall tests assessed memory for real news, fake news, if corrections occurred, and beliefs in retrieved details. Repeating fake news increased detection and remembering of corrections, correct real news retrieval, and erroneous fake news retrieval. No age differences emerged for detection of corrections, but younger adults remembered corrections better than older adults. At test, correct fake news retrieval for earlier-detected corrections was associated with better real news retrieval. This benefit did not differ between age groups in recognition but was greater for younger than older adults in cued recall. When detected corrections were not remembered at test, repeated fake news increased memory errors. Overall, both age groups believed correctly retrieved real news more than erroneously retrieved fake news to a similar degree. These findings suggest that fake news repetition effects on subsequent memory accuracy depended on age differences in recollection-based retrieval of fake news and that it was corrected. 
    more » « less
  5. ; (, Biological psychology)
    Older adults (OAs) often prioritize positive over negative information during word processing, termed as positivity bias. However, it is unclear how OAs update the affective representation of a word in contexts. The present study examined whether age-related positivity bias influences the update of the affective representation of a word in different emotional contexts. In Experiment 1 (web-based), younger and older participants read positive and negative target words in positive and negative contexts and rated the valence of the target words. Negative contexts biased the ratings more than positive ones, reflecting a negativity bias during offline valence evaluation in both age groups. In Experiment 2 (EEG), another group of participants read positive and negative target words in positive and negative contexts first, and then the same target words again, and made valence judgment on the target words. OAs showed a larger P2 (180–300 ms) difference before and after contexts for positive target words than younger adults (YAs). This suggests OAs’ early attention to positive features of words in contexts. YAs showed a larger late positive complex (LPC) difference for target words before and after negative contexts than before and after positive contexts, while older adults showed comparable LPC effects across all the conditions. This suggests that YAs use negative contexts to update the affective representation of a word, whereas OAs do so in both positive and negative contexts. Our findings supported a reduced negativity bias in OAs in using (emotional) contexts to update the affective neural representation of a word. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email