Language and ageing - exploring propositional density in written language - stability over time

This study investigated the stability of propositional density (PD) in written texts, as this aspect of language shows promise as an indicator and as a predictor of language decline with ageing. This descriptive longitudinal study analysed written texts obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical linguistics & phonetics Vol. 26; no. 9; pp. 743 - 754
Main Authors: Spencer, Elizabeth, Craig, Hugh, Ferguson, Alison, Colyvas, Kim
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Colchester Informa Healthcare 01.09.2012
Taylor & Francis
Informa
Subjects:
Adults. Performance, acquisition
ageing
Aging
Aging (Individuals)
Aging - physiology
Australia
Cognition - physiology
Computer Generated Language Analysis
computerised language analysis
Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - methods
Discourse Analysis
Elderly
Female
Females
Foreign Countries
Health
Health Surveys
Humans
Intervals
Language
Language Disorders - diagnosis
Language Disorders - epidemiology
Language Skills
Language Tests - statistics & numerical data
Language Usage
Linguistics
Longitudinal Studies
Middle Aged
Older Adults
Predictor Variables
Production and comprehension processes
propositional density
Psycholinguistics
Psychology of language
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Syntax
Women's Health - statistics & numerical data
Writing (Composition)
Writing Processes
Writing Skills
Written Language
Australia
propositional density
Syntactic structure
Ageing
Longitudinal study
Written language
Elderly person
computerised language analysis
Psycholinguistics
language
Language skill
Complexity
ISSN:0269-9206, 1464-5076, 1464-5076
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This study investigated the stability of propositional density (PD) in written texts, as this aspect of language shows promise as an indicator and as a predictor of language decline with ageing. This descriptive longitudinal study analysed written texts obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health in which participants were invited to respond to an open-ended question about their health. The 635 texts used for this study were taken from 127 middle-aged women who responded to this question on each of the five surveys conducted at 3-year intervals over a 16-year period. The study made use of an automated PD rater (CPIDR-3) for the analysis. PD was found to be a stable measure over time when comparing the grouped data, but there was between- and within-subject variation over time. Further research is needed to explore the valid use of this measure in research into language and ageing.
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ISSN:0269-9206
1464-5076
1464-5076
DOI:10.3109/02699206.2012.673046