关系从句加工中生命性效应的年老化研究

名词生命性信息为句子加工提供了重要的词汇语义线索,然而,随着年龄的增长,个体加工和运用生命性信息的能力也会发生变化。本研究通过自定步速阅读实验对比了老年人和青年人加工汉语关系从句的生命性效应。研究采用汉语主语关系从句作为实验材料,操控了关系从句宾语名词的生命性特征(有生命,无生命)和主句主语名词的生命性特征(有生命,无生命)。研究发现,对于老年组而言,关系从句中名词的生命性特征对在线加工的阅读时间没有显著影响,而在青年组中,主句主语是无生命名词的关系从句比主句主语是有生命名词的关系从句更难加工。这表明,同青年人相比,老年人利用生命性信息的能力发生了退化。研究结果为容量限制理论提供了证据。

Animacy Effect on Relative Clause Processing in Elderly Individuals

Animacy provides important lexical semantic cues for relative clause processing.Yet individuals' ability to use animacy cues may change with advancing age.In this study, comparison was made between younger and older adults in animacy effect on relative clause processing through a self-paced reading task.Mandarin relative clauses were used as the experimental materials and the animacy of RC objects(animate, inanimate) and main clause subjects(animate, inanimate) were manipulated.The results suggest that for older adults, the animacy of RC objects and main clause subjects had no significant effect on the reading times in online processing.For younger adults, the relative clauses with inanimate main clause subjects were more difficult to process than those with animate main subjects.The finding indicates that there is an age-related decline in the ability to utilize animacy cues in sentence processing.The findings supported the Capacity Constrained Comprehension Theory.