Age-linked declines in retrieving orthographic knowledge: Empirical, practical, and theoretical implications

This study developed and tested a Transmission Deficit hypothesis of how ag ing affects retrieval of orthographic knowledge. Young, older, and very old adults heard a tape-recorded series of difficult-to-spell words of high an d low frequency spoken slowly, clearly and repeatedly, and wrote down each word at their own pace. With perceptual errors and vocabulary differences f actored out, misspellings increased with aging, especially for high-frequen cy words. In addition, data from a metamemory questionnaire indicated that the oldest adults were aware of their declining ability to spell. These fin dings were not due to general slowing, educational factors, hours per week spent reading, writing, or solving crossword puzzles, or age-linked decline s in monitoring or detecting self-produced errors. However, the results fit Transmission Deficit predictions, and suggested an age-linked decline in r etrieval of orthographic knowledge that resembles age-linked declines in sp oken word retrieval observed in many other studies. Practical implications of this age-linked decline for conceptions of normal aging are noted.