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Book SynopsisSusan Kemper A debate about the role of working memory in language processing has become center-most in psycholinguistics (Caplan & Waters, in press; Just & Carpenter, 1992; Just, Carpenter, & Keller, 1996; Waters & Caplan, 1996). This debate concerns which aspects of language processing are vulnerable to working memory limitations, how working memory is best measured, and whether compensatory processes can offset working memory limitations. Age-comparative studies are particularly relevant to this debate for several reasons: difficulties with language and communication are frequently mentioned by older adults and signal the onset of Alzheimer''s dementia and other pathologies associated with age; older adults commonly experience working memory limitations that affect their ability to perform everyday activities; the rapid aging of the United States population has forced psycholo
Table of ContentsList of Contributors. Preface; S. Kemper. Part 1: Constraints on Language: Aging. 1. Language Production and Aging; D.M. Burke. 2. Working Memory and Spoken Language Comprehension: The Case for Age Stability in Conceptual Short-Term Memory; A. Wingfield, P.A. Tun. 3. Discourse Processing and Aging: Resource Allocation as a Limiting Factor; E.A.L. Stine-Morrow, L.M. Soederberg Miller. Part 2: Constraints on Language: Memory. 4. Limitations on Syntactic Processing; S. Kemper, K.A. Kemtes. 5. Verbal Working Memory Capacity and On-Line Sentence Processing Efficiency in the Elderly; G. Waters, D. Caplan. 6. Testing Age Invariance in Language Processes; R. Kliegl, et al. Part 3: Constraints on Language: Grammar. 7. Processing Difficulty and Principles of Grammar; G. Fanselow, et al. 8. Parsing and Memory; L. Frazier. Part 4: Constraints on Language: Neuroscience. 9. Working with Limited Memory: Sentence Comprehension in Alzheimer's Disease; D. Kempler, et al. 10. Memory or Aging? That's the Question: An Electrophysiological Perspective on Language; T.C. Gunter, et al. 11. Age Effects on the Functional Neuroanatomy of Syntactic Processing in Sentence Comprehension; D. Caplan, G. Waters. Concluding Observations; R. Kliegl, S. Kemper. Index.
