Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Summer 8-15-2015 The nflueI nce of Word Frequency and Aging on Lexical Access Emily Rebecca Cohen-Shikora Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Cohen-Shikora, Emily Rebecca, "The nflueI nce of Word Frequency and Aging on Lexical Access" (2015). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 577. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/577 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Psychology Dissertation Examination Committee: David A. Balota, Chair Janet Duchek Denise Head Brett Hyde Rebecca Treiman The Influence of Word Frequency and Aging on Lexical Access by Emily Cohen-Shikora A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2015 St. Louis, Missouri © 2015, Emily Cohen-Shikora Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. v Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Age Differences in Language Processing ...................................................................................... 2 1.2 Methods of Studying Visual Word Recognition............................................................................ 4 1.3 Theories of Visual Word Recognition ........................................................................................... 5 1.4 Prior Work on the Age by Word Frequency Interaction ................................................................ 9 1.5 Inconsistencies and Differences among Studies: Motivation for the Current Dissertation .......... 14 1.6 Item Predictor Variables in the Current Study ............................................................................ 17 1.7 Participant Characteristics ........................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 2: Method ........................................................................................................................ 24 2.1 Participants.................................................................................................................................. 24 2.2 Stimuli......................................................................................................................................... 25 2.3 Procedure .................................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3: Results ......................................................................................................................... 31 3.1 Comparison of Different Word Frequency Metrics ..................................................................... 32 3.2 Data Analysis: General Approach ............................................................................................... 36 3.3 Item-Level Analyses ................................................................................................................... 37 3.4 Subject-Level Analyses ............................................................................................................... 43 3.5 Linear Mixed Effects Modeling .................................................................................................. 55 3.6 Task Specificity of Predictor Variables ....................................................................................... 63 3.7 Analyses Split by Animacy ......................................................................................................... 66 Chapter 4: General Discussion...................................................................................................... 69 4.2 What Model Can Account for the Observed Effects?.................................................................. 75 4.3 Limitations of the Current Study ................................................................................................. 77 References ..................................................................................................................................... 83 Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix A: Word Stimuli ............................................................................................................... 93 ii Appendix B: Nonword Stimuli ......................................................................................................... 98 Appendix C. Demographic Questionnaire....................................................................................... 100 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Histogram of participant age ......................................................................................... 24 Figure 2: R2 values for each word frequency metric when entered alone in model ..................... 33 Figure 3: Beta weights for each word frequency metric when entered (one at a time) in full model............................................................................................................................................. 34 Figure 4: Word frequency metrics separately for each task and age group when entered (one at a time) in full model ........................................................................................................................ 35 Figure 5: Item-level beta weights for z-scores .............................................................................. 40 Figure 6: Item-level beta weights for accuracy ............................................................................. 43 Figure 7: Linear and quadratic effects of age on word frequency z-score betas ........................... 47 Figure 8: Relationship between age and word frequency z-score betas in the naming task, controlling for vision..................................................................................................................... 50 Figure 9: Linear and quadratic effects of age on word frequency accuracy betas ........................ 54 Figure 10: Linear mixed effects model interactions when controlling for OSpan ....................... 59 Figure 11: Word frequency × vocabulary interaction ................................................................... 61 Figure 12: Item-level analyses split by animacy status (living versus non-living) ...................... 67 iv List of Tables Table 1: Overall Subject Descriptives and Descriptives Split by Age Group ...............................25 Table 2: Overall Item Predictor Variable Descriptives..................................................................27 Table 3: Correlation Matrix for Item Predictor Variables and Overall Performance ....................28 Table 4: Overall Task Performance ...............................................................................................32 Table 5: Item-Level Results for Z-Scores across Tasks.................................................................37 Table 6: Item-Level Results for Accuracy across Tasks ...............................................................38 Table 7: R2 Values for All Phonological Onsets Combined, Split by Mono- vs. Multisyllabic ... 40 Table 8: Correlation Matrix for Subject Predictor Variables ........................................................ 44 Table 9: Subject-Level Correlations with Word Frequency Betas ............................................... 46 Table 10: Subject-Level Partial Correlations between Age and Word Frequency Betas ............. 49 Table 11: Subject-Level Correlations with Other Predictor Variable Betas, Z-scores ................. 51 Table 12: Linear Mixed Effects Model Betas for RT and Accuracy ............................................ 57 Table 13: Inter-Task Correlations by Variable ............................................................................. 64 Table 14: Inter-Task Correlations by Variable, Partialled by Age .............................................. 65 v Acknowledgments Endless thanks to my committee members, Dave, Jan, Becky, Denise, and Brett, for embarking on this journey with me. It has been the most empowering and instructive experience of graduate school. A special thanks goes to my core committee, Dave, Jan, and Becky, and to my other academic mentors,