Aged-related differences in the predictability of verb-thematic roles: An eye-tracking study [시선추적을 활용한 동사의 의미역 예측 정도가 노년층 의미역 처리에 미치는 영향]

Abstract

Objectives: The goal of the study was to identify the age-related declines in verb-mediated prediction in Korean using Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order via eye-tracking. Therefore, this study compares the predictive processing ability of the group (younger and older) according to the semantic degree of prediction (high and low) of the verb based on the functional associations of verb-noun. Methods: The participants were 20 young adults aged 20-39 (age 23.84±2.56 years) and 20 older adults aged 60-79 (age, 66.00±2.70 years). Experiments were conducted on a computer equipped with an eye-tracker and participants selected a picture while listening to a voice stimulus. The task had two conditions on the degree of prediction. Results: This study examined the difference between groups according to the degree of semantic prediction (high and low) of the verb. The results showed that the elderly and younger age group exhibited a significant difference on predicted response times and the proportion of target fixations. Conclusion: Real-time processing has shown that older age groups have a declined ability to use verb information. Younger people are faster in using verb information and are more efficient in dealing with semantically strong verbs that constrain semantics. The results show that the ability to use the semantic network of the verb to predict noun words decrease with age. © 2019 Korean Academy of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.