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ABSTRACT
Word retrieval deficits are one of the most common complaints among older adults. The Transmission Deficit Hypothesis (Burke, MacKay, Worthley, & Wade, Citation1991, Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 542–579) predicts that phonologically similar names would be harder for older adults to encode and retrieve. Results indicated that overall older adults encoded and recalled fewer words than younger adults when given only one trial and when given multiple trials to criterion. For both experiments, proper names were more difficult to retrieve than common nouns, and phonologically similar words were more difficult to retrieve than phonologically different words for both older and younger adults. Age differences were not evident for retrieving phonologically similar items or names but older adults did need more trials to encode phonologically similar items and names. Age differences for phonologically similar items and names appear related to encoding processes with retrieval of these items consistently hard for both older and younger adults.
This research was supported by an NIA Training Grant in Communication and Aging (AG00226) awarded to the University of Kansas as well as a research and creative activity award from California State University Sacramento Foundation. Special acknowledgments go to Jennifer Wight, Aaron Reese, Carey Galles Kripa Krishnan, Ginna Wilson, and Paula Gannon for their assistance with data collection.
Notes
SSE = similar substitution errors;DSE = different substitution errors.