The Time Course of Metonymic Language Text Processing by Older and Younger Adults

Abstract

The influence of aging on the processing of figurative language was investigated by utilizing Frisson and Pickering's (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25, 1366–1383, 1999) paradigm, monitoring eye fixation times to target words in sentences. First fixation times and total fixation times were analyzed for familiar and unfamiliar metonymies and literal control sentences. Frisson and Pickering found that processing figurative and literal expressions yielded similar patterns of eye fixations. In the current study, these methods and results were replicated and extended to include older adults' processing of metonymies. This investigation replicated their findings for young adults and found that older adults produced the same processing patterns as the younger adults.

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIA grant AG00226) to the Research Training Program in Communication and Aging at the University of Kansas. The author thank especially everyone at the Grayhawk Laboratory, including Dr. Joan McDowd, Valorie Wells, and the Grayhawk participants as well as the Occupational Therapy research assistants Connie Smith and Connie Rose. In addition, the authors thank the reviewers for their helpful comments. All stimuli are available through the first author upon request.

Notes

Note. A “/” denotes end of presentation line.

Note. Frisson et al. (1999) N = 28 young adults.

Note. N = 48 for Collapsed groups. N = 26 for Target word with correct answer to probe question.