노인의 문장회상발화에서 나타난 언어적 비유창성 분석

Abstract

In this study we investigated the discourse production ability of older adults by using a sentence recall task in order to examine the link between the linguistic disfluencies and cognitive functioning, and the role of linguistic disfluencies in semantic aspect of sentence recall. Fifty-six older adults (ages 63-87) performed the sentence recall task in which they read short sentences and recalled the contents aloud. Fluency and disfluency in discourse production were measured by the propositional recall as well as the frequency and types of disfluencies. The results were as follows. First, the propositional recall rate of the elderly was very low, and four types of disfluencies in utterances were frequently found. Second, the propositonal recall rate was positively correlated with the overall cognitive function, vocabulary, and reading span. Third, the rate of disfluency significantly predicted the propositonal recall performance independently after controlling for cognitive functioning. These results suggest that linguistic disfluency may play a significant role in semantic aspect of discourse production in addition to cognitive functioning. Thus, disfluent utterances could be indicative of linguistic decline due to normal as well as pathological aging.