The influence of age on the time course of word preparation in multiword utterances

摘要

Sentence production requires speakers to co-ordinate the preparation of words so that they are ready for articulation when they are needed. Ageing appears to influence both the speed and likelihood of successful word retrieval. We examine how age differences in word production might influence the production of larger units of speech such as sentences. Speakers described displays containing three objects of systematically varied naming difficulty. The latency, duration, content, and fluency of speech in addition to its co-ordination with eye movements indicated that both young and older adults prepared their words immediately before uttering them. As a consequence, older adults were also significantly less fluent in their utterances than were younger adults.