# Naming speed during language production in younger and older adults: Examining the effects of sentence context

## TL;DR

Older adults benefit from sentence context when retrieving words during speech, similar to younger adults.

## Contribution

Demonstrates that sentence context facilitates lexical retrieval in both younger and older adults.

## Key findings

- Both younger and older adults named words faster in matched contexts compared to neutral contexts.
- Mismatched contexts did not slow down word production for either age group.
- Semantic knowledge and control measures did not predict sentence context effects in older adults.

## Abstract

Word retrieval during speech production has been found to slow down with ageing. Usually, words are produced in sentence contexts. The current studies examined how different sentence contexts influence lexical retrieval in younger and older adults. We also examined the potential influence of semantic knowledge and control on sentence-context effects. Study 1 was completed by 48 younger and 48 older adults. They named pictures that were preceded by a matched context (which predicted that specific target word), a mismatched context (predicting another word), a neutral context (that did not predict one specific word), or no context. In comparison to the neutral context, both younger and older adults’ word production was faster in matched contexts, suggesting both age groups benefitted from sentence contexts facilitating the retrieval of predictable words. Neither age group was slowed down by the mismatched contexts (compared to the neutral contexts), suggesting these contexts did not create (sufficient) interference to hinder lexical retrieval. In Study 2, participants completed measures of semantic knowledge, verbal fluency, semantic control, and inhibition. Older adults showed larger semantic knowledge but poorer inhibition and (on some measures) semantic control than younger adults. However, none of these measures predicted the sentence context effects observed in Study 1. Together, this suggests older adults’ lexical retrieval can continue to benefit from sentence contexts predictive of upcoming words during language production.