Abstract
The purpose of this study was to delineate the properties of a novel syntactic assessment battery and to present descriptive data on normal elderly individuals. We administered the Syntactic Assessment Battery (hereinafter SAB) using a sentence-picture paradigm to 195 normal elderly adults in three age groups (60–69, 70–79, and 80–90) and five educational levels (No formal education, Elementary School Graduation, Middle School Graduation, High School Graduation, College Graduation and Above). A multiple linear regression model was applied to verify the age and education effects. A summary of results indicated that the SAB effectively detected age and education effects. People generally demonstrated worse performance as they aged but better performance as their educational levels increased. People with high school education and above generally demonstrated stronger performance on the test, although educational effects were not significantly different between elementary and middle school graduation groups. The current novel syntactic assessment battery can serve as a screening measure that sensitively detects age and education effects.
Highlights
Sentence comprehension abilities have attained increased attention in association with aging-related changes in cognitive and linguistic performance, evidence on aging-related decline in sentence processing abilities may vary depending on the task complexity and response modality
We focused on age and education effects on the novel test, given that these are among critical factors that serve as a cognitive reserve (Stern, 2002) when people perform linguistic and cognitive tasks
The current study investigated age and education effects on a novel syntactic assessment battery, which was developed for early detection of aging-related decline in sentence processing abilities
Summary
Sentence comprehension abilities have attained increased attention in association with aging-related changes in cognitive and linguistic performance, evidence on aging-related decline in sentence processing abilities may vary depending on the task complexity and response modality. Several versions of sentence comprehension tests are available for English speakers to detect aging effects. Assessment paradigms vary, from sentence-picture matching task (Caplan et al, 1997; Small et al, 1997) to syntactic plausibility judgment tests (Rochon et al, 1994; Meyer et al, 2012). Such tests often tap into syntactic parsing abilities which encompass an array of capabilities to identify the syntactic structures and interpret the meaning of a sentence by integrating syntax and semantics. In the process of interpreting a sentence, the interface between syntax and semantics
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