Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition
Reading is one of the most popular leisure activities and it is routinely performed by most individuals even in old age. Successful reading enables older people to master and actively participate in everyday life and maintain functional independence. Yet, reading comprises a multitude of subprocesse...
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doaj-1c560636a18345f59243a0506c3684fa2020-11-24T22:55:28ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-11-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01863234098Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognitionEva Froehlich0Eva Froehlich1Eva Froehlich2Johanna Liebig3Johanna Liebig4Johanna Liebig5Johannes C Ziegler6Mario Braun7Ulman Lindenberger8Hauke R Heekeren9Hauke R Heekeren10Hauke R Heekeren11Arthur M Jacobs12Arthur M Jacobs13Arthur M Jacobs14Freie Universität BerlinDahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of EmotionCenter for Cognitive Neuroscience BerlinFreie Universität BerlinDahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of EmotionCenter for Cognitive Neuroscience BerlinAix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LPCUniversität SalzburgMax Planck Institute for Human DevelopmentFreie Universität BerlinDahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of EmotionCenter for Cognitive Neuroscience BerlinFreie Universität BerlinDahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of EmotionCenter for Cognitive Neuroscience BerlinReading is one of the most popular leisure activities and it is routinely performed by most individuals even in old age. Successful reading enables older people to master and actively participate in everyday life and maintain functional independence. Yet, reading comprises a multitude of subprocesses and it is undoubtedly one of the most complex accomplishments of the human brain. Not surprisingly, findings of age-related effects on word recognition and reading have been partly contradictory and are often confined to only one of four central reading subprocesses, i.e., sublexical, orthographic, phonological and lexico-semantic processing. The aim of the present study was therefore to systematically investigate the impact of age on each of these subprocesses. A total of 1,807 participants (young, N = 384; old, N = 1,423) performed four decision tasks specifically designed to tap one of the subprocesses. To account for the behavioral heterogeneity in older adults, this subsample was split into high and low performing readers. Data were analyzed using a hierarchical diffusion modelling approach which provides more information than standard response times/accuracy analyses. Taking into account incorrect and correct response times, their distributions and accuracy data, hierarchical diffusion modelling allowed us to differentiate between age-related changes in decision threshold, non-decision time and the speed of information uptake. We observed longer non-decision times for older adults and a more conservative decision threshold. More importantly, high-performing older readers outperformed younger adults at the speed of information uptake in orthographic and lexico-semantic processing whereas a general age-disadvantage was observed at the sublexical and phonological levels. Low-performing older readers were slowest in information uptake in all four subprocesses. Discussing these results in terms of computational models of word recognition, we propose age-related disadvantages for older readers to be caused by inefficiencies in temporal sampling and activation and/or inhibition processes.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01863/fullAgingreadingvisual word recognitionlexical decisionsemantic decisionletter identification |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Eva Froehlich Eva Froehlich Eva Froehlich Johanna Liebig Johanna Liebig Johanna Liebig Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Ulman Lindenberger Hauke R Heekeren Hauke R Heekeren Hauke R Heekeren Arthur M Jacobs Arthur M Jacobs Arthur M Jacobs |
spellingShingle |
Eva Froehlich Eva Froehlich Eva Froehlich Johanna Liebig Johanna Liebig Johanna Liebig Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Ulman Lindenberger Hauke R Heekeren Hauke R Heekeren Hauke R Heekeren Arthur M Jacobs Arthur M Jacobs Arthur M Jacobs Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition Frontiers in Psychology Aging reading visual word recognition lexical decision semantic decision letter identification |
author_facet |
Eva Froehlich Eva Froehlich Eva Froehlich Johanna Liebig Johanna Liebig Johanna Liebig Johannes C Ziegler Mario Braun Ulman Lindenberger Hauke R Heekeren Hauke R Heekeren Hauke R Heekeren Arthur M Jacobs Arthur M Jacobs Arthur M Jacobs |
author_sort |
Eva Froehlich |
title |
Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition |
title_short |
Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition |
title_full |
Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition |
title_fullStr |
Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition |
title_full_unstemmed |
Drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: A hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition |
title_sort |
drifting through basic subprocesses of reading: a hierarchical diffusion model analysis of age effects on visual word recognition |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychology |
issn |
1664-1078 |
publishDate |
2016-11-01 |
description |
Reading is one of the most popular leisure activities and it is routinely performed by most individuals even in old age. Successful reading enables older people to master and actively participate in everyday life and maintain functional independence. Yet, reading comprises a multitude of subprocesses and it is undoubtedly one of the most complex accomplishments of the human brain. Not surprisingly, findings of age-related effects on word recognition and reading have been partly contradictory and are often confined to only one of four central reading subprocesses, i.e., sublexical, orthographic, phonological and lexico-semantic processing. The aim of the present study was therefore to systematically investigate the impact of age on each of these subprocesses. A total of 1,807 participants (young, N = 384; old, N = 1,423) performed four decision tasks specifically designed to tap one of the subprocesses. To account for the behavioral heterogeneity in older adults, this subsample was split into high and low performing readers. Data were analyzed using a hierarchical diffusion modelling approach which provides more information than standard response times/accuracy analyses. Taking into account incorrect and correct response times, their distributions and accuracy data, hierarchical diffusion modelling allowed us to differentiate between age-related changes in decision threshold, non-decision time and the speed of information uptake. We observed longer non-decision times for older adults and a more conservative decision threshold. More importantly, high-performing older readers outperformed younger adults at the speed of information uptake in orthographic and lexico-semantic processing whereas a general age-disadvantage was observed at the sublexical and phonological levels. Low-performing older readers were slowest in information uptake in all four subprocesses. Discussing these results in terms of computational models of word recognition, we propose age-related disadvantages for older readers to be caused by inefficiencies in temporal sampling and activation and/or inhibition processes. |
topic |
Aging reading visual word recognition lexical decision semantic decision letter identification |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01863/full |
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