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Psychology and Aging CoovriRht 1993 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

1993, Vol. 8, No. 3, 443-450 08S2-7974/93/$3.00

Age Differences in Word Finding in Discourse and Nondiscourse Situations


Robert B. Heller and Allen R. Dobbs

Measures of word finding in discourse (video description task) and nondiscourse situations (word
fluency tasks) were obtained from a sample of 90 community-dwelling healthy adults. Age differ-
ences were found in the accuracy and uncertainty of the labels used to refer to the characters and
objects depicted in the video description task and in the number of correct responses in the
category fluency task. There was a significant amount of shared variance between the 2 types of
tasks. More important, there was a significant amount of variance in the video discourse task
associated with age that was independent of performance in the word fluency task. The communi-
cative impact of a word-finding problem and need for discourse level study are discussed.
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There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that older finding difficulties in discourse situations, but the cause or
adults experience more word-finding problems than do causes of these difficulties remain uncertain. For example, sev-
younger adults. Age differences have been reported when par- eral researchers have reported an age-related increase in the use
ticipants are asked to retrieve a word in response to a definition of pronouns relative to nominal forms when re-telling a story
(Bowles & Poon, 1985; Burke, MacKay, Worthley, & Wade, (Cohen, 1979; Ulatowska, Cannito, Hayashi, & Fleming, 1985).
1991), name a picture (Albert, Heller, & Milberg, 1988; Nicho- This finding may reflect the difficulties older adults have re-
las, Obler, Albert, & Goodglass, 1985), and retrieve words that trieving a label in the absence of phonological and ortho-
come from a semantic category (Howard, 1980; Obler & Albert, graphic information. Alternatively, the decrease in the use of
1985). nominal forms may reflect deficits in retrieval from episodic
On the basis of these and other findings, Bowles, Obler, and memory because nominal forms have to be retained in long-
Poon (1989) suggested that older adults may have more diffi- term memory in story re-telling tasks.
culty than do younger adults in going from the concept of a Walker, Robert, and Hedrick (1988) examined spontaneous
word to its phonological label in the absence of orthographic or speech samples from a group of younger and older adults and
phonemic information. It is not clear, however, the extent to also found an age-related increase in the use of empty words
which this type of word-finding problem manifests itself in and word revisions. Although these findings are consistent
discourse situations. One possibility is that the word-finding with a word retrieval deficit, comparing the spontaneous
problem might be especially prevalent because of the absence speech of two different age groups can be problematic if the
of orthographic and phonemic information in oral discourse content is confounded with age. In Walker et al. (1988), exam-
settings. Another possibility is that the additional contextual iners chose topics like family, hobbies, vacations, and typical
support that is typical of most discourse situations may facili- days as the foci of discourse samples. For some older adults,
tate activation of the word label and offset this type of word- these topics may involve the retrieval of "older memories" in
finding problem in older adults. which names and other information are less available.
Unfortunately, the literature on age-related word-finding
Word-finding problems have also been reported in picture
problems in discourse does not provide a clear answer to this
description tasks. Obler and Albert (1981) found an age-related
question. Older adults generally show more evidence of word-
increase in the use of indefinite terms, vague references, and
circumlocutions when participants were describing a picture
from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Exam. More recently,
Robert B. Heller and Allen R. Dobbs, Department of Psychology,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Cooper (1990) found a trend toward an age-related increase in
This research was supported by a grant from the Alberta Mental the use of indefinite wording when participants were asked to
Health Advisory Council to Allen R. Dobbs and by a fellowship from describe three different pictures. It is not clear in either study,
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to however, whether the use of indefinite wording was directly
Robert B. Heller. related to a word-finding deficit per se. It may be that older
We acknowledge Brendan G. Rule, who made the significant contri- adults simply had perceptual problems that affected their iden-
butions to earlier stages of the research; Kathy Bensen, Diedre Gailey, tification of the objects in the picture. Nor is it clear from any of
Yvonne Ko, Inga Neilson, Darlene Ramsden, Rhonda Roberts, and these reports whether the word retrieval problems experienced
Carolyn Taciuk for their assistance on data collection and entry; the by older adults were associated with specific words, specific
Lifespan Adult Memory Project group for discussions on a draft of this
article; and Loraine Obler, Elizabeth Maylor, and an anonymous re-
situations, or both.
veiwer for their comments on an earlier draft. Despite some interpretive problems, the literature generally
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Al- is consistent with the idea that older adults have more difficulty
len R. Dobbs, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Ed- finding words in discourse situations than do younger adults. It
monton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E9. is less clear, however, whether word-finding problems experi-
443
444 ROBERT B. HELLER AND ALLEN R. DOBBS

enced in discourse situations are related to age differences in reported themselves to be in relatively good health, and none of the
the ability to retrieve word labels in the absence of phonologi- participants reported taking psychotropic drugs, having alcoholic
cal and orthographic information. The goal of the present re- blackouts, or having neurological impairment, head injury, or stroke.
search was to examine this possibility more closely by looking The participants ranged in age from 28 to 76 years of age with a mean
at the relation between word retrieval difficulties in discourse age of 51.7 (S1/^ 13.22).
and nondiscourse situations. For descriptive purposes, the participants were separated into four
age groups according to decade. Table 1 displays the number of partici-
For the discourse situation, we used a procedure that is based
pants within each age group and includes measures of education, vo-
on the picture description task to avoid the interpretive prob- cabulary, and visual acuity. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed
lems associated with the analysis of spontaneous speech and no reliable difference between groups in the number of yearsof educa-
story re-telling. Instead of a picture, participants in the present tion, F(3,86) < 1, or in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Wechsler,
study were asked to describe a short video cartoon as the video 1955) Vocabulary subtest score, F(3, 77) < 1, which was completed by
was playing, a task introduced by Tomlin (1986). Both video 81 participants.
and picture description tasks enable control over the content of Corrected visual acuity was assessed with a procedure developed by
discourse while minimizing the demands on episodic memory. the Empirical Optical Company. In this task, participants are required
to read from a distance of 40 cm a series of paragraphs that vary in font
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The video description task, however, provides a better opportu-


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size. Each font size is associated with a measure of visual angle, and the
nity to examine the retrieval of nominal and pronominal forms font size of the last paragraph successfully read can be taken as a
because the characters in the video engage in a series of actions measure of acuity. The means displayed in Table 1 can be interpreted in
that occur over time. Moreover, there is a wider assortment of relation to performance on the Snellen eye chart. A visual acuity rating
objects depicted in the video, which provides a better opportu- of 20/20 on the Snellen corresponds approximately to a score of 0.5 on
nity to examine the retrieval of object labels. In contrast, the the present task. Higher scores on the present task correspond to
characters in the picture description task do not engage in an poorer visual acuity. Although corrected visual acuity tended to de-
extended series of actions, and the number of objects depicted crease across age groups, the trend was not statistically significant,
in the picture is limited. F(3, 86) = 2.21, p < . 10. It should be noted, however, that the average
We obtained measures of word finding in the discourse task corrected visual acuity of older adults was approximately 20/20.
Finally, Table 1 shows that a high percentage of participants within
by examining the types of references that participants used
each group were native English speakers, and an ANOVA revealed no
when referring to characters and the accuracy of the labels used differences in the percentage of native English speakers across groups.
to refer to objects. Word-finding problems were also indexed by Moreover, all of the participants were currently speaking English at
recording the incidence of hedging on characters and objects, home.
where hedging was defined as any linguistic expression of un-
certainty on the part of the speaker. We assumed that hedging
would be indicative of a word-finding problem in the same way Materials and Procedure
that circumlocutions are taken as evidence of word-finding dif-
The on-line video description task was administered first. In this
ficulties.
task, participants were asked to watch a short (108s) video cartoon that
Word finding in a nondiscourse situation was assessed by depicted the story of a goldfish that is first chased by a crab, then by a
having participants complete three types of word fluency tasks pike, and finally by both. The cartoon was presented in black and
that differed in the type of contextual constraint. In the word white without any soundtrack. After familiarizing the participants
fluency (letter) task, we asked participants to name as many with the cartoon, the video was shown again, and the participants were
words as possible that began with a certain letter. In the word
fluency (category) task, we asked participants to name as many
words as possible that came from a certain category. In the word
fluency (category + letter) task, we asked participants to name a Table 1
word that came from a certain category and began with a cer- Demographic Characteristics
tain letter. Age group (years)
The question of interest concerns the relation between perfor-
mance on the word fluency tasks and performance on the dis- 28-39 40-49 50-59 60-76
course task. On the one hand, if the word-finding problems Variable (n = 21) (n = 22) (n = 17) (n = 30)
experienced in discourse are primarily dependent on the abil- Age
ity to retrieve words in the absence of phonological and ortho- M 34.48 45.32 54.18 67.07
graphic information, then performance on the fluency tasks SD 3.09 3.06 2.86 4.95
should be highly related to performance on the on-line video Education
description task. On the other hand, if the word-finding prob- M 14.43 14.36 14.06 14.50
SD 2.14 2.54 2.70 2.64
lems experienced in discourse settings are due in part to differ- Vocabulary
ent processes, then there should be a weaker relationship be- M 64.35 61.61 63.75 65.44
tween performance on the two tasks. The objective of the pres- SD 6.24 8.99 6.19 8.41
ent research is to assess these possibilities. n 20 18 16 27
Visual acuity
Method M 0.39 0.42 0.48 0.52
SD 0.05 0.10 0.25 0.25
Participants Native English speakers
M .91 .91 .88 .83
Ninety adults (54 women and 36 men) were selected for participation SD 0.30 0.29 0.33 0.38
from a pool of community-dwelling volunteers. All of the participants
WORD FINDING AND AGING 445

asked to describe the events in as much detail as they could while the word fluency (letter) task, participants completed two trials in which
events happened. The participants were asked to imagine that their they were given 30 s to generate as many words as possible that began
description would be for someone who had never seen the cartoon. with a certain letter. In the word fluency (category) task, participants
The examiner was present during each presentation and sat behind the completed one trial in which they were given 30 s to generate as many
video monitor, off to one side. The examiner controlled the videotape words as possible that came from a certain category. In the word flu-
player and the audiotape recorder that was used to record the oral ency (category + letter) task, participants completed nine trials in
descriptions for later transcription. which they were given 60 s per trial to provide a word that came from a
We obtained three measures of word finding from each description. certain category and began with a certain letter (e.g., "Give me a word
The first measure focused on the types of nominal and pronominal that is a kitchen tool and begins with the letter k"). Participants were
references used by participants to refer to the characters in the video. asked to respond with an answer as fast as they could, and latencies
Pronominal references were separated into ambiguous and unam- were recorded by the examiner with a stopwatch. The responses for all
biguous categories according to whether the antecedent referent could three tasks were recorded and later scored for accuracy. The word flu-
be confidently identified by a single judge familiar with the plot and ency tasks were always administered in the following order: letter, cate-
actions of the story. If there were two or more equally likely referents for gory, then category + letter.
a given pronoun, the pronoun was classified as ambiguous.
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Nominal references were separated into three categories that were Results
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identified on the basis of a review of the descriptions. The first cate-


gory included nominal labels designated as modal because these labels We first examine performance on the word fluency tasks and
were used most often by all participants (e.g., little fish, crab, and big the on-line video description task to identify possible age-re-
fish). The second category included all of the specific but nonmodal lated word-finding problems in the two types of situations. Fol-
nominal labels to refer to the characters (e.g., octopus, clam, and alliga- lowing that, we examine the relation between the word-finding
tor). Technically, the majority of these labels would be incorrect in
measures in the word fluency task and the on-line video de-
light of the consensus reached on the modal labels. The characters in
scription task to determine the predictive utility of nondis-
the video were, however, animated and may not have been accurate
depictions of the modal terms for some participants. The third cate- course word-finding performance for discourse situations.
gory, unspecified, included nominal labels that were unspecified or
generic in nature (e.g., creature, animal, thing, and fellow). Technically, Word Fluency
these labels would be correct even though they lacked specificity.
The second measure of word finding assessed the number and accu- The word fluency (letter) and word fluency (category) data
racy of objects that were labeled by participants during the descrip- from one participant were unavailable because of equipment
tion. On the basis of earlier work, 26 objects were selected from the failure, and the word fluency (category + letter) latency data
video as objects that were frequently mentioned by most participants. from a different participant were unavailable because of exper-
Judges determined whether each object was labeled and whether the imenter error. For the remaining participants, mean perfor-
label was correct, unspecified, or incorrect. As with references, correct
mance on each word fluency task was calculated and is shown
object labels were determined on the basis of a consensus. Similarly,
unspecified object labels were technically correct even though they for descriptive purposes in Table 2 as a function of age group.
were underspecified (i.e., cover for shell, obstruction for shipwreck, We used multiple regression analyses to examine the age-re-
and little hole for porthole). Incorrect labels were labels for objects that lated variance associated with each measure of performance
were clearly incorrect in light of the given context (i.e., manhole for after the variance associated with education had been removed.
porthole, snowbank for sponge, and scissors for pinchers). The results of the regression analyses are shown in the last two
The third measure of word finding focused on linguistic indexes of columns of Table 2. The second last column displays the change
hedging. Hedging was defined as any expression of uncertainty about in R2 that occurred when the age of the participant was entered
the identity of an object, a character, or some event portrayed in the into the equation after education. The last column displays the
video. The types of hedges used varied across and within participants. total amount of variance associated with both age and educa-
Four categories of hedges were identified on the basis of salient lin-
tion. As can be seen in Table 2, there was only a significant
guistic features. Multiple hedges referred to cases in which participants
provided multiple labels for an entity (e.g., "and an alligator or croco- increase in R2 when age was entered in the analysis of the word
dile goes by"). Self hedges referred to cases in which participants in- fluency (category) task.
cluded some reference to themselves when labeling an entity (e.g., "I Correlations among the fluency measures were also calcu-
guess it is a sunken ship"). Qualified hedges referred to cases in which lated and revealed a weak though reliable positive relation be-
participants qualified their labels with phrases like "some kind of a" or tween the word fluency (letter) task and the word fluency (cate-
"some type of a." Unknown hedges referred to cases in which partici- gory) task (r = . 19, p < .05). The word fluency (category + letter)
pants tried to label an object but were unable to completely identify the task was positively related to the word fluency (letter) task (r =
entity (e.g., "don't know what that is"). A fifth category, unclassified .09) and the word fluency (category) task (r=. 17), but the corre-
hedges, referred to cases in which a hedge was identified but could not lations were not statistically reliable at the .05 level. There were
be classified into one of the four previous categories. The reliability of
unexpected positive relationships between the latency measure
the scoring procedure was assessed by looking at interrater agreement
on 10 randomly selected protocols. The percent agreement between from the word fluency (category + letter) task and accuracy on
two judges was 92%. the word fluency (category + letter) task (r = . 18, p < .05) and
In addition to measuring the type of hedge, judges indicated between the latency measure from the word fluency (category
whether the hedge was used to qualify a character or an object. If the + letter) task and performance on the word fluency (letter) task
hedge could not be categorized into one of these two categories, it was (r = .17, p < .10). The reason for these unexpected positive
left unclassified. correlations is not certain, but one possibility is that partici-
We administered the word fluency tasks after participants com- pants discounted the instructions to respond as quickly as possi-
pleted the discourse task and several unrelated cognitive tasks. In the ble and instead treated the task more like a problem-solving
446 ROBERT B. HELLER AND ALLEN R. DOBBS

Table 2
Word Fluency Performance

Age group (years)


28-39 40-49 50-59 60-76 R2 change R2
Measure (n = 22) (« = 17) (n = 30) (age) total
Letter
M 11.83 10.62 10.97 10.63 .004 .045
SD 2.14 2.72 2.13 2.83
Category
M 9.29 9.05 7.63 7.07 .064* .076*
SD 3.88 3.01 2.39 3.29
Category + letter
Accuracy
M 7.48 7.55 7.59 7.33 .001 .008
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SD 1.37 1.14 1.12 1.09


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Latency (in seconds)


M 4.11 3.84 2.89 3.75 .004 .016
SD 2.56 1.58 1.03 2.09
' p < .05.

task. The remaining correlation between the latency measure were expressed as proportions of the total number of refer-
in the word fluency (category + letter) task and performance on ences. Proportional measures were used to ensure that any age
the word fluency (category) task was not statistically reliable (r differences in the use of a particular type of character reference
= -.02). could not be attributed to age differences in volubility. The
resulting proportions are shown in rows 2 through 6 in the
second section of Table 3. As can be seen, modal nominal labels
On-Line Video Description appear to decrease with age, whereas the use of nonmodal and
The on-line video description task was completed by all par- unspecified nominal labels appear to increase with age. Pro-
ticipants without difficulties. In terms of overall volubility, nominal references appear unrelated to age, regardless of ambi-
there was a tendency toward an age-related decrease in the guity, but a pronoun-to-noun ratio, calculated as an index of
number of words per description as shown in the first section of pronoun reliance and shown in row 7 of Table 3, appears to
Table 3. We carried out a multiple regression analysis to exam- increase with age.
ine the age-related variance associated with overall volubility We carried out a series of multiple regression analyses on
after the variance associated with education and visual acuity each of the proportional measures to examine the variance that
had been removed. The result of this analysis is shown in the was related to age and independent of education and visual
last two columns in the first section of Table 3. The second last acuity. The results of these analyses are shown in the last two
column displays the change in R2 when age was entered into the columns in the second section of Table 3. There were signifi-
equation after education and visual acuity. The last column cant increases in R2 when age was entered into the equation
displays the total amount of variance accounted for by all three after education and visual acuity in the analysis of modal, non-
variables (education, visual acuity, and age). As indicated in modal, and unspecified nominal labels. There was also a signifi-
Table 3, there was a significant increase in R2 when age was cant increase in R2 in the analyses of the pronoun-to-noun
entered into the equation after the variance associated with ratio, but the overall model was nonsignificant.
education and visual acuity had been removed. The object labeling measures are shown in the third section
The remaining three sections of Table 3 display performance of Table 3. The first row in this section shows that the total
on the on-line video description in terms of character refer- number of labeled objects appears to increase slightly across age
ences, object labels, and hedges. The first row in the second groups. The result of a multiple regression analysis on the total
section of Table 3 displays the total number of character refer- number of labeled objects is shown in the last two columns. As
ences as a function of age group. As can be seen, the number of can be seen, there was a significant increase in R2 when age was
references appears to decrease as age increases. The same type entered into the equation after education and visual acuity.
of multiple regression analysis was carried out on the number of As with the character references, measures of object labeling
character references to determine the amount of age-related were expressed as a proportion of total objects labeled to adjust
variance that was independent of education and visual acuity. for age differences in volubility. These proportions are shown in
The results, shown in the last two columns in the second section rows 2,3, and 4 in the third section of Table 3. As indicated in
of Table 3, indicate that there was a significant increase in R2 the table, the oldest group appears to use proportionately fewer
when age was entered into the equation after education and correct object labels and more incorrect object labels than the
visual acuity. other groups, whereas the use of unspecified object labels ap-
To adjust for the age differences in the total number of charac- pears unrelated to age.
ter references, the individual measures of character referencing We carried out the same type of multiple regression analyses
WORD FINDING AND AGING 447

Table 3
On-Line Video Description Performance
Age group (years)
28-39 40-49 50-59 60-76 R2 change R2
Measure (» = 21) (n = 22) (n = 17) (n = 30) (age) total

Overall volubility
Number of words
M 297.19 273.77 259.59 253.37 .058* .094*
SD 42.93 65.17 72.48 61.29
Character references
Total references
M 43.81 41.36 37.59 33.73 .088** .123**
SD 8.90 12.27 12.19 11.19
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Modal nominal labels


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M .48 .42 .35 .29 .174*** .232***


SD .15 .23 .17 .15
Nonmodal nominal labels
M .06 .13 .13 .15 .045* .099*
SD .07 .16 .11 .15
Unspecified nominal labels
M .01 .03 .04 .07 .087** .090*
SD .04 .09 .06 .08
Unambiguous pronouns
M .45 .39 .46 .48 .034 .062
SD .12 .14 .13 .13
Ambiguous pronouns
M .00 .02 .02 .02 .030 .034
SD .01 .03 .04 .03
Pronoun-to-noun ratio
M 0.90 0.84 1.08 1.11 .049* .082
SD 0.46 0.53 0.74 0.55
Object labels
Total objects
M 12.95 11.55 10.53 9.90 .096** .117*
SD 3.46 3.25 2.94 3.34
Correct object labels
M .88 .86 .87 .78 .095** .123**
SD .11 .14 .11 .16
Unspecified object labels
M .09 .10 .08 .12 .009 .030
SD .09 .14 .07 .10
Incorrect object labels
M .04 .03 .05 .10 .137*** .153**
SD .06 .05 .06 .12

Hedges
Multiple hedges
M 0.43 0.77 0.35 1.13 .041 .087*
SD 0.68 1.27 0.49 1.20
Self hedges
M 0.24 0.55 0.65 1.53 .153*** .159**
SD 0.44 0.67 1.00 1.57
Qualified hedges
M 0.91 1.50 1.24 3.03 .160*** .169***
SD 1.18 1.79 1.20 2.33
Unknown hedges
M 0.33 0.55 0.18 0.63 .022 .029
SD 0.66 1.18 0.53 1.00
Unclassified hedges
M 0.05 0.05 0.29 0.23 .025 .058
SD 0.22 0.21 0.77 0.57
Hedges per character
M 0.01 0.04 0.07 0.11 .218*** .223***
SD 0.02 0.06 0.11 0.11
Hedges per object
M 0.06 0.16 0.07 0.21 .060* .150**
SD 0.10 0.18 0.06 0.13
* p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001
448 ROBERT B. HELLER AND ALLEN R. DOBBS

on the proportional measures of object labeling to determine inal labels, the pronoun-to-noun ratio, unspecified object la-
the amount of variance that was related to age and independent bels, hedges per character, and hedges per object. Similarly, the
of education and visual acuity. The results of the analyses, use of correct object labels was negatively related to unspecified
shown in the last two columns in the third section of Table 3, nominal labels, the pronoun-to-noun ratio, unspecified object
indicate that there was a significant increase in R2 when age labels, incorrect object labels, and hedges per object. These
was entered into the equation after education and visual acuity correlations suggest that at least some of the processes that
in the analysis of correct object labels and incorrect object la- underlie performance on these different measures of word find-
bels but not in the analysis of unspecified object labels. ing in the video description task may be interrelated.
The fourth and final section of Table 3 displays the mean
number of each hedge type in rows 1-5 as a function of age
Relation Between On-Line Video Description and Word
group. As can be seen, the number of each hedge type appears
to increase across age groups, especially the number of self and Fluency
qualified hedges. We carried out a multiple regression analysis The correlations between measures of performance on the
on each measure of hedging to determine the amount of vari- video description task with measures from the word fluency
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ance that was related to age. The results, shown in the last two tasks are shown in Table 5. The pattern of correlations indicates
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

columns in the fourth section of Table 3, indicate that there was that performance on the word fluency (category) task was more
a significant increase in R2 when age was entered into the equa- strongly related to performance on the video description task
tion after education and visual acuity only in the analysis of self than was performance on the word fluency (letter) task. Al-
and qualified hedges. It is interesting to note that the age-re- though performance on the word fluency (category + letter)
lated increase in the use of self and qualified hedges occurred task was not reliably related to measures of performance on the
despite an age-related decrease in overall volubility as indicated video description task, the correlations were in the expected
by the number of words in each description. direction for the most part.
The incidence of hedging was examined further by adjusting We used multiple regression analyses to determine whether
for age differences in the number of opportunities to hedge. performance on the word fluency tasks could predict perfor-
The number of hedges directed toward characters was analyzed mance on the video description task and, moreover, whether
as a proportion of the total number of nominal character labels. age could predict any additional variance after the variance
Similarly, the number of hedges directed toward objects was associated with nondiscourse word finding had been removed.
analyzed as a proportion of the total number of objects that That is, in addition to education and visual acuity, the variance
were labeled. These proportions, shown in the last two rows in associated with word fluency (letter), word fluency (category),
the fourth section of Table 3, appear to increase across age and word fluency (category + letter) was removed before the age
groups. The results of a multiple regression analysis on each of the participant was entered into the equation.
measure are shown in the last two columns. There was a signifi- The results of the multiple regression analyses are shown in
cant increase in R2 when age was added to the equation after Table 6. The first column indicates the change in R2 that oc-
education and visual acuity in both analyses. curred when the verbal fluency tasks were entered into the
The correlations among measures of performance from the equation after education and visual acuity. The second column
on-line video description task were calculated and are shown in indicates the change in R2 that occurred when age was subse-
Table 4. The pattern of correlations is consistent with the ex- quently entered into the equation. The final column displays
pected direction of relatedness among the measures of word the total amount of variance accounted for by all variables. As
finding in the on-line video description. For example, the use can be seen in the first column, there was a significant increase
of modal nominal labels was positively related to correct object in R2 when the word fluency tasks were entered into the equa-
labels and negatively related to nonmodal and unspecified nom- tion after education and visual acuity in the analysis of modal

Table 4
Intratask Correlations: On-Line Video Description Task
Variable 1

1. MNL
2. NNL -.57**
3. UNL -.36** -.11 —
4. PNR -.61** -.08 -.02
5. COL .31** -.03 -.39** —
-.20* —
6. UOL -.21* -.07 .35** .14 -.61** —
7. IOL -.17 .13 -.04 .21* -.53** .09 —
8. HC -.37** .32** .24* .10 -.01 .00 .11 —
9. HO -.32** .18* .14 .11 -.20* .30** .15 .23* —
Note. MNL = modal references; NNL = nonmodal references; UNL = unspecified references; PNR =
pronoun-to-noun ratio; COL = correct object label; UOL = unspecified object label; IOL = incorrect
object label; HC = hedges per character; HO = hedges per object.
* p< .05, one-tailed. ** p < .01, one-tailed.
WORD FINDING AND AGING 449

Table 5 objects, they still experience relatively more difficulty in find-


Intertask Correlations: On-Line Video Description ing the right label. These findings are important because they
Task and Word Fluency Tasks demonstrate that previously reported age differences in object
naming (e.g., Albert et al., 1988) would not be necessarily miti-
Word fluency measures gated by additional contextual support as provided by the
Video description Category video.
measures Letter Category + letter" There was also a striking age-related increase in the number
of hedges or linguistic indexes of uncertainty, an effect that
Character references occurred despite a trend toward an age-related decrease in the
Modal nominal labels .22* .33** .06
Nonmodal nominal labels -.03 -.24* .07 number of words per description. Although hedging took many
Unspecified nominal labels -.14 -.18* .03 forms, the most dramatic increase was in the number of self
Pronoun-to-noun ratio -.16 -.12 -.14 hedges and qualified hedges. Moreover, the age-related in-
Object labels crease in hedging was found in the labeling of both characters
Correct object labels .17 .23* .16 and objects.
Unspecified object labels -.20* -.24** .02
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Incorrect object labels -.14 -.16 In many ways, the notion of hedging is very similar to cir-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

.09
Hedges cumlocution, a linguistic phenomenon that has been taken to
Hedges per character -.03 .00 -.05 be indicative of a word-finding deficit and also reported to be
Hedges per object -.12 -.20* -.05 associated with age (Albert et al., 1988; Obler & Albert, 1985).
* The dependent measure for word fluency (category + letter) was accu- The present research demonstrates that at least some aspects of
racy. hedging are related to word-finding problems in discourse, as
* p < .05, one-tailed. ** p < .01, one-tailed. indicated by the pattern of correlations shown in Table 4. Fur-
ther work needs to be done, however, to refine the definitions of
hedging and how it is related to circumlocution and other word
references and unspecified object labels. More important, the retrieval deficits.
second column shows that there was an additional significant Overall, the present set of findings replicate and extend pre-
increase in R2 when the age was entered into the equation after vious research on word-finding problems in discourse. Our pri-
the word fluency tasks in the analysis of modal and unspecified mary goal, however, was to determine whether the disruption
references, correct and incorrect object labels, hedges per char- of word finding in discourse was related to performance on the
acter, and hedges per object. word fluency tasks. To address this goal, we used performance
on the fluency tasks to predict performance on the discourse
Discussion task in a series of multiple regression analyses. The results indi-
cated that the addition of word fluency performance led to a
The results of the present research provide further evidence significant increase in the amount of variance accounted for in
for an age-related disruption in the ability to find words in a the analysis of modal nominal labels and unspecified object
discourse situation. Older adults had more trouble than labels. Thus, some of the variance associated with word finding
younger adults did in finding words to refer to characters when in discourse situations can be accounted for by word fluency
describing a video cartoon. The use of modal references de- measures.
creased with age, whereas the use of nonmodal and unspecified It is interesting to note that the word fluency (category) task
references increased with age. Moreover, there was a trend for was the fluency task that was most strongly related to age (see
older adults to use relatively more pronouns than nouns in com-
parison with younger adults, as indicated by a pronoun-to-
noun ratio. It should be noted that the disruption in character
Table 6
referencing was found after controlling for age differences in
Predictive Utility of Word Fluency Measures
volubility. Even though older adults make fewer character refer-
ences, they still experience a proportionately greater number of R2 R2
word-finding problems. Video description change change R2
The findings stated here are consistent with previous reports measure (word fluency) (age) total
of referential disruption in the communications of older adults Character references
(Cohen, 1979; Obler & Albert, 1981; Ulatowska et al., 1985). Modal nominal labels .108* .133*** .298***
Few of the earlier studies, however, examined referential abili- Nonmodal nominal labels .046 .034 .137
ties in situations that minimize episodic retrieval demands. Unspecified nominal labels .045 .074* .122
Thus, the present findings are important not only because they Pronoun-to-noun ratio .039 .039 .112
Object labels
replicate and extend previous research but also because the Correct object labels .070 .069* .166*
present study provides evidence against an explanation of the Unspecified object labels .108* .002 .132
referential disruption that is based on differences in retrieval Incorrect object labels .059 .116*** .191**
from episodic memory. Hedges
Older adults also used proportionately fewer correct object Hedges per character .002 .231*** .238***
Hedges per object .027 .046* .162*
labels and more incorrect object labels in their descriptions
than did younger adults. Even though older adults labeled fewer . 01. p<.001.
450 ROBERT B. HELLER AND ALLEN R. DOBBS

Table 2), a finding also reported by Obler and Albert (1985). traditional measures of word retrieval. Rather, traditional tasks
Moreover, the word fluency (category) task was the fluency task may be insufficient to assess the nature and extent of the word-
most strongly related to performance on the on-line video de- finding problems associated with aging. The use of discourse
scription task (see Table 5). These findings are important be- level tasks can complement our knowledge of word-finding
cause, of the three word fluency tasks, the word fluency (cate- problems associated with aging and lead to a better under-
gory) task provided the least amount of phonological and ortho- standing of the communicative impact of a word-finding defi-
graphic information during word-finding performance. Thus, cit.
word fluency (category) tasks may be the best predictors of
word-finding problems in discourse situations because they References
better approximate the conditions that are most likely to be
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ability with age. Psychology and Aging, 3, 173-178.
Despite the importance of the word fluency tasks, especially
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the word fluency (category) task, when the variance associated retrieval: Naturalistic, clinical, and laboratory data. In L. W Poon,
with the fluency measures had been removed, age still ac- D. C. Rubin, & B. A. Wilson (Eds.), Everyday cognition in adulthood
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

counted for significant amounts of additional variance in the and'late life(pp. 244-265). Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univer-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

analysis of modal references, unspecified references, correct sity Press.


object labels, incorrect object labels, hedges per character, and Bowles, N. L., & Poon, L. W (1985). Aging and retrieval of words in
hedges per object. This means that a substantial part of the semantic memory. Journal of Gerontology, 40, 71-77.
word-finding problems in the on-line video description task Burke, D. M., MacKay, D. Q, Worthley, J. A., & Wade, E. (1991). On the
was associated with age and was independent of the variance tip-of-the-tongue: What causes word finding failures in young and
older adults. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 542-579.
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Cohen, G. (1979). Language comprehension in old age. Cognitive Psy-
finding, the word-finding problems experienced by older chology, 11, 412-429.
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to retrieve words in the absence of phonological and ortho- mance on oral picture description tasks. Journal of Gerontology, 45,
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There are several important implications of this finding. Howard, D. V (1980). Category norms: A comparison of the Battig and
First, the independence of word-finding problems at the dis- Monatague (1969) norms with the responses of adults between the
course level leads to the suggestion that traditional word level ages of 20 and 80. Journal of Gerontology, 35, 225-231.
tasks may be inadequate to fully understand and document the Nicholas, M., Obler, L. K., Albert, M. L., & Goodglass, H. (1985).
nature of word-finding deficit associated with aging. Second, Lexical retrieval in healthy aging. Cortex, 21, 595-606.
Obler, L. K., & Albert, M. L. (1981). Language and aging: A neurobe-
word-finding problems unique to discourse focus attention on
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other possible causes. Word finding in discourse situations is munication processes and disorders (pp. 107-121). New York: Grune
subject to a wider variety of constraints than is typically found & Stratton.
in nondiscourse situations. In addition to conceptual con- Obler, L. K., & Albert, M. L. (1985). Language skills across adulthood.
straints, words must satisfy syntactic and pragmatic con- In J. E. Birren & K. W Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of
straints, and it may be that any one or more of these constraints aging (pp. 463-473). New \fork: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
are responsible for the disruption. Finally and perhaps most Tomlin, R. S. (1986). The identification of foreground-background in
important, word-finding problems unique to discourse focus on-line oral descriptive discourse. Papers in Linguistics, 19, 465-
attention on the communicative impact. For example, the de- 494.
creased specificity of references and object labels found in the Ulatowska, H. K., Cannito, M. P., Hayashi, M. M., & Fleming, S. G.
(1985). Language abilities in the elderly. In H. K. Ulatowska (Ed.),
present study may ultimately affect the ease with which a lis- The aging brain: Communication in the elderly (pp. 125-139). San
tener is able to syntactically parse an utterance. Moreover, the Diego, CA: College-Hill Press.
lack of specificity may also impair the listener's ability to form Walker, V G, Robert, B. M., & Hedrick, D. L. (1988). Linguistic analy-
the links between concepts that make messages cohesive and ses of the discourse narratives of young and aged women. Folia
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vide a vehicle for assessing the impact of a word-finding deficit Wechsler, D. (1955). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (7th ed.). New
on the communicative effectiveness of discourse. York: Psychological Corporation.
In summary, the present study clearly demonstrates that the
word-finding problems experienced by older adults are not an Received August 31,1992
artifact brought about by a loss of contextual support in tradi- Revision received February 26,1993
tional experimental tasks nor are they solely accountable by Accepted February 26,1993 •

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