Syntactic complexity and adults' running memory span

Abstract

This study investigated age group differences in adults' running memory span for prose. College students and adults 60 to 94 years of age listened to a prose passage that was interrupted occasionally by pauses. At each pause, the adults attempted to recall the immediately preceding text. The pauses followed either two single-clause sentences, a two-clause right-branching sentence, or a two-clause left-branching sentence. There was a significant Age Group x Syntactic Form x Clause Order interaction such that the age group differences in verbatim recall were exacerbated by the effects of syntactic complexity. The elderly recalled 25% fewer words from the first embedded clause of the left-branching sentences than the college students, whereas they recalled only 4% fewer words from the first of two successive single-clause sentences. Performance on the running memory span task was also correlated with two measures of the adults' working memory: forward digit span and backward digit span. The pattern of correlations indicated that working memory limitations determine adults' running memory span for prose and contribute to age-group deficits in comprehension.