EFFECTS OF AGE AND EDUCATION ON THE LEXICOSEMANTIC CONTENT OF CONNECTED SPEECH IN ADULTS

One hundred and thirty-three subjects who considered themselves to be in good health described the bank robbery picture from an aphasia batt ery for French-speaking subjects. The subjects' connected speech was a nalyzed and various lexico-semantic measures were obtained. For the pu rposes of analysis, the subjects were grouped according to age and edu cation level. Results demonstrated that subjects with fewer years of e ducation produced less content than subjects with higher levels of edu cation. Age also affected subjects' performance but only when consider ing efficiency, the number of content units as a function of time, and the number of different open-class words as a function of time. Older subjects tended to repeat the same content units (using mostly the sa me words) and comment on some word-finding difficulties they experienc ed. These behaviors may explain why older subjects were less efficient in the transmission of lexico-semantic information. The results empha size how age can affect lexico-semantic performance, and add new data about the effects of education, which should be taken into considerati on when assessing persons who may show signs of a language disorder. ( C) 1998 by Elsevier Science Inc.