Regaining lost time: Adult aging and the effect of time restoration on recall of time-compressed speech

Two experiments in which time was restored to artificially accelerated (tim e-compressed) speech are reported. Experiment I showed that although both y oung and older adults' recall of the speech benefited from the restoration of time, time restoration failed to boost the older adults to their baselin e levels for unaltered speech. In Experiment 2, either 100% or 125% of lost time was restored by inserting pauses, either at linguistic boundaries or at random points within the passages. Experiment 2 showed that the benefici al effects of time restoration depended on where processing time was insert ed, as well as how much time was restored. Results are interpreted in terms of age-related slowing in speech processing moderated by preserved linguis tic knowledge and short-term conceptual memory.