Language, Memory, and Aging

by Leah L. Light (Editor), Deborah M. Burke (Editor)

This volume addresses both the research on language in old age relevant to memory, and memory research relevant to language in old age. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in the aging process as it affects cognition. Most research attention has been focused on memory and relatively little has been focused on language in the elderly. The authors draw on a range of methodologies and compare young and older adults (both normal and demented). Representing the major perspectives in contemporary cognition theory, they raise such current issues as the role of awareness in memory and language, the relation between semantic and episodic memory, the distinction between automatic and attentional processes, and the usefulness of distinguishing among levels of processing. This book will be welcomed not only as an invaluable overview of an active research boundary but as an impetus to further theoretical development and empirical work.

294 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 1988