Sunday, August 10, 2025 8/10/2025

MEMORY AND LANGUAGE IN OLD AGE

Award Number: R37AG008835
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 02/01/1990
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2011

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

MEMORY AND LANGUAGE IN OLD AGE - The proposed research will increase our understanding of age differences in basic cognitive processes that are fundamental to language and memory. The experiments test two accounts of cognitive aging that jostulate age decrements in specific processes. Under the Transmission Deficit hypothesis, age weakens connections among representational units in memory, thereby reducing the transmission of priming. Under the nhibition Deficit hypothesis, age reduces the efficiency of inhibitory processes that suppress irrelevant nformation. We test contrasting predictions of these hypotheses for age deficits in spoken and written anguage production. The long-term goal is to contribute to the development of theories of aging that apply o a broad spectrum of cognitive performance, and that are sufficiently well specified to make testable predictions. A related goal is to identify the specific mechanisms underlying increased failures in phonological and orthographic retrieval in old age. The research focuses on cognitive problems that older adults report as their most frequent and most troubling, for example, tip of the tongue states (TOTs) and forgetting proper names, and it identifies conditions that either exacerbate or reduce these problems. Five sets of experiments are proposed. Experiments 1-4use a phonological priming technique to test whether aging causes selective decrements in phonological retrieval processes involved in word production. Experiments 5-7 investigate the locus of age-related difficulty in retrieving proper names by comparing retrieval of names that are low vs. high frequencyphonological forms (e.g., [Bill] Cosby vs. [Doris] Day, respectively). Experiments 8-9 use a "competitor priming" paradigm to evaluate whether inhibitiondeficits impair older adults naming of pictures of famous actors dressed as famous characters (James Bond-Sean Connery), so that two names compete for production. Experiments 10-12 examine a common mechanism for age-related increases in TOTs and spelling errors by determining whether they are correlated, and whether spelling is improved by prior processing designed to eliminate transmission deficits. Experiments 13a and 13b investigate why off-topic speech increases in old age and whyr despite thisr older adults' narratives are rated more positively.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2010 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2010	2008	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	19	4/2/2010	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2008 ( Subtotal = $270,003 )
2008	2008	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	19	3/26/2008	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$270,003
														Subtotal = $270,003

Issue Date FY: 2007 ( Subtotal = $259,908 )
2007	2007	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	001	18	5/30/2007	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$5,000
2007	2007	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	18	4/30/2007	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$254,908
														Subtotal = $259,908

Issue Date FY: 2006 ( Subtotal = $259,708 )
2006	2006	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	17	5/2/2006	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$259,708
														Subtotal = $259,708

Issue Date FY: 2005 ( Subtotal = $356,117 )
2005	2005	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	001	16	4/29/2005	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$10,000
2005	2005	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	16	4/18/2005	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$346,117
														Subtotal = $356,117

Issue Date FY: 2004 ( Subtotal = $252,756 )
2004	2004	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	15	4/30/2004	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$252,756
														Subtotal = $252,756

Issue Date FY: 2003 ( Subtotal = $294,736 )
2003	2003	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	001	14		SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$5,000
2003	2003	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	14		NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$289,736
														Subtotal = $294,736

Issue Date FY: 2002 ( Subtotal = $409,480 )
2002	2002	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	13	3/25/2002	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$409,480
														Subtotal = $409,480

Issue Date FY: 2001 ( Subtotal = $286,400 )
2001	2001	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	002	12	9/18/2001	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$5,000
2001	2001	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	001	12	8/27/2001	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$5,000
2001	2001	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	12	3/29/2001	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$276,400
														Subtotal = $286,400

Issue Date FY: 2000 ( Subtotal = $279,560 )
2000	2000	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	11	8/21/2000	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$269,560
2000	2000	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	001	11	7/24/2000	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$10,000
														Subtotal = $279,560

Issue Date FY: 1999 ( Subtotal = $283,056 )
1999	1999	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	000	10	4/30/1999	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$278,056
1999	1999	POMONA COLLEGE	550 N COLLEGE AVENUE	CLAREMONT	CA	91711	LOS ANGELES	USA	Aging Research	001	10	6/30/1999	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$5,000
														Subtotal = $283,056

Grand Total All Awards = $2,951,724

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

MEMORY AND LANGUAGE IN OLD AGE

Award Number: R37AG008835

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 02/01/1990

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2011

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer