University of Leicester
Browse

Syntactic prediction during self-paced reading is age invariant

Download (546.14 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-02-17, 11:31 authored by Michael G Cutter, Kevin B Paterson, Ruth Filik

Controversy exists as to whether, compared to young adults, older adults are more, equally or less likely to make linguistic predictions while reading. While previous studies have examined age effects on the prediction of upcoming words, the prediction of upcoming syntactic structures has been largely unexplored. We compared the benefit that young and older readers gain when the syntactic structure is made predictable, as well as potential age differences in the costs involved in making predictions. In a self-paced reading study, 60 young and 60 older adults read sentences in which noun-phrase coordination (e.g. large pizza or tasty calzone) is made predictable through the inclusion of the word either earlier in the sentence. Results showed a benefit of the presence of either in the second half of the coordination phrase, and a cost of the presence of either in the first half. We observed no age differences in the benefit or costs of making these predictions; Bayes factor analyses offered strong evidence that these effects are age invariant. Together, these findings suggest that both older and younger adults make similar strength syntactic predictions with a similar level of difficulty. We relate this age invariance in syntactic prediction to specific aspects of the ageing process.

Funding

This research was supported by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant RPG-2019-051.

History

Citation

Cutter, M. G., Paterson, K. B., & Filik, R. (2023). Syntactic prediction during self-paced reading is age invariant. British Journal of Psychology, 114, 39– 53. https://doi.org /10.1111/bjop.12 594

Author affiliation

Department of Neuroscience, Psychology & Behaviour

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

Volume

114

Issue

1

Publisher

WILEY

issn

0007-1269

eissn

2044-8295

Acceptance date

2022-08-15

Copyright date

2022

Available date

2023-02-17

Language

English