The ageing neighbourhood: phonological density in naming

Abstract

Ageing affects the ability to retrieve words for production, despite maintenance of lexical knowledge. In this study, we investigate the influence of lexical variables on picture naming accuracy and latency in adults ranging in age from 22 to 86 years. In particular, we explored the influence of phonological neighbourhood density, which has been shown to exert competitive effects on word recognition, but to facilitate word production, a finding with implications for models of the lexicon. Naming responses were slower and less accurate for older participants, as expected. Target frequency also played a strong role, with facilitative frequency effects becoming stronger with age. Neighbourhood density interacted with age, such that naming was slower for high-density than low-density items, but only for older subjects. Explaining this finding within an interactive activation model suggests that, as we age, the ability of activated neighbours to facilitate target production diminishes, while their activation puts them in competition with the target.