Older adults filter irrelevant information during metaphor comprehension.

Full Abstract

In general, older adults are less likely than younger adults to inhibit irrelevant information when reading literal text (Hasher & Zacks, 1988). Are older adults also less likely to inhibit irrelevant information during metaphor comprehension? Young (mean age 19.2 years) and older adults (mean age 73.6 years) participated in a timed property-verification task. Although the older adults were generally slower than the younger, they displayed the same pattern of data. After reading metaphors, both groups verified metaphor-relevant properties more quickly after a metaphor prime than after a literal control prime, whereas metaphor-irrelevant properties were responded to more slowly after metaphor primes, relative to the controls. These results suggest that older adults, like younger ones, enhance metaphor-relevant properties and filter out metaphor-irrelevant properties during metaphor comprehension. Older adults' metaphor comprehension processes thus seem intact. Mechanisms for filtering out metaphor-irrelevant information are considered.

Author information

Author/s: Newsome, Mary R (MR); Glucksberg, Sam (S);

Affiliation: Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Experimental aging research (Exp Aging Res), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2002 Jul-Sep; vol 28 (issue 3) : pp 253-67

Dates: Created 2002/06/25; Completed 2003/01/06; Revised 2008/02/25;

PMID: 12079577, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

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