Arthur Wingfield is on sabbatical. He will be returning in Fall 2008.
The memory problem in normal aging has its roots in reduced
efficiency in acquiring new information, and it is primarily
this limitation that later translates into memory failures.
Our approach to this question is focused on rapid speech
comprehension and memory for what has been heard. Our starting
point came from the demonstration in our laboratory, and
others', of age-sensitive reductions in the capacity of
working memory and in speed of perceptual processing and
rapid organization of high-speed input that would paradoxically
seem to predict far more serious decrements in spoken language
processing than one actually sees in healthy aging.
We use "time-compressed" speech on a computer to artificially
increase speech rates beyond normal levels, while still
maintaining the natural flow, timing and pitch contour of
the speech. When older adults (audiologically screened for
age-normal hearing) are tested, rates of decline in recall
for unrelated word-lists can be five-times greater than
for a matched group of young adults. We then use computer
editing of the speech to add structural coherence, prosodic
contour and linguistic constraints to the speech to explore
how these features are used by older adults to bring their
performance to a level more closely approaching that of
the young. In this way we are able to examine the delicate
interplay between "top-down" contextual support (at both
the acoustic and linguistic levels) as it may be used to
supplement the declining sensory, or "bottom-up" analysis
of the acoustic signal itself. As part of this research
we also explore how age-related central auditory deficits
(e.g., temporal resolution, frequency discrimination) interact
with these cognitive changes.
Our work also includes questions relating to speech production
and its implications for memory retrieval. In one approach
to this question, we explore various types of naming deficits
following left hemisphere focal brain damage; primarily
stroke. For this work the Wingfield lab has an affiliation
with the Aphasia Research Center in Boston.
Recent Publications
Wingfield, A. (2000). Speech perception and the comprehension
of spoken language in adult aging. D. C. Park & N. Schwarz
(Eds.). Cognitive aging: A primer (pp. 175-195).
Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
Wingfield, A., & Stine-Morrow, E.A.L.(2000). Language and
speech. In Craik, F.I.M., & Salthouse, T.A. Handbook
of Aging and Cognition (2nd. Ed.; pp. 359-416). Mahwah,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Tun, P.A., & Wingfield, A. (2000). Slow but sure in an
age of "make it quick." Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain
Science, 2, 31-43.
Wingfield, A., Prentice, K., Koh, C., & Little, D. (2000).
Neural change, cognitive reserve and behavioral compensation
in rapid encoding and memory for spoken language in adult
aging. In L.T. Connor & L.K. Obler (Eds). Neurobehavior
of language and cognition: Studies of normal aging and brain
damage (pp. 3-21). Boston, MA: Kluwer.
Lindfield, K.C., Goodglass, H., & Wingfield, A. (2000).
Dissociating speed from automaticity in the Stroop task:
Evidence from a case of progressive posterior cortical atrophy.
In L.T.Connor & L.K. Obler (Eds). Neurobehavior of language
and cognition: Studies of normal aging and brain damage
(pp. 299-313). Boston, MA: Kluwer.
Kahana, M.J., & Wingfield, A. (2000). A functional relation
between learning and organization in free recall. Psychonomic
Bulletin and Review, 7, 516-521.
Wingfield, A., Lindfield, K.C., & Goodglass, H.(2000).
Effects of age and hearing sensitivity on the use of prosodic
information in spoken word recognition. Journal of Speech,
Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 915-925.
Titone, D., Prentice, K.J., & Wingfield, A. (2000). Resource
allocation during spoken discourse processing: Effects of
age and passage difficulty as revealed by self-paced listening.
Memory & Cognition, 28, 1029-1040.
Titone, D., Wingfield, A., Caplan, D., Waters, G., & Prentice,
K. (2001). Memory and encoding of spoken discourse following
right hemisphere damage: Evidence from the auditory moving
window (AMW) technique. Brain and Language, 77, 10-24.
Goodglass, H., Hyde, M.R., Gleason, J.B., Ward, S.E., &
Wingfield, A. (2001). Aphasics' accessto nouns and verbs:
Discourse versus confrontation naming. Brain and Language,
79, 148-150.
Wingfield, A., & Tun, P.A. (2001). Spoken language comprehension
in older adults: Interactions between sensory and cognitive
change in normal aging. Seminars in Hearing, 22,
287-301.
Wingfield, A., Kemtes, K.A., & Miller, L.S. (2001). Adult
aging and listening patterns for spoken prose: Spontaneous
segmentation versus self-paced listening. Experimental
Aging Research, 27, 229-239.
Wingfield, A. (2001). Language comprehension. In G. Maddox
(Ed.) Encyclopedia of Aging (3rd ed., p 582-583.)
New York: Springer Publishers.
Kahana, M.J., Howard, M., Zaromb, F., & Wingfield, A. (2002).
Age dissociates recency and lag-recency effects in free
recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory, and Cognition, 28, 530-540.
Tun, P.A., O'Kane, G., & Wingfield, A. (2002). Distraction
by competing speech in young and older adult listeners.
Psychology and Aging, 17, 453-467.
Wingfield, A., & Kahana, M.J. (2002). The dynamics of memory
retrieval in older adulthood. Canadian Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 56, 187-199.
Wingfield, A., Peelle, J., & Grossman, M. (2002). Speech
comprehension in the aging brain: Effects of speech rate
and syntactic complexity. Brain and Language, 83,
11-13.
Wingfield, A., Tun, C.G., Gomez, P.T., & Tun, P.A.. (2003).
Preservation of cognitive function after long-term tetraplegia.
American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
82, 547-555.
Wingfield, A., Peelle, J.E., & Grossman, M. (2003). Speech
rate and syntactic complexity as multiplicative factors
in speech comprehension by young and older adults. Journal
of Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 10, 310-322.
Lahar, C., Tun, P. A., Wingfield, A. (2004). Sentence-Final
Word Completion Norms for Young, Middle-Aged, and Older
Adults. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences,
59B, P7-P10.
Naeser, M.A., Martin, P.I., Baker, E.H., Hodge, S.M, Sczerzenie,
S.E., Nicholas, M., Palumbo, C.L., Goodglass, H., Wingfield,
A. et al. (2004). Overt propositional speech in chronic
nonfluent aphasia studied with the dynamic susceptibility
contrast fMRI method. NeuroImage, 22, 29-41.
Little, D.M., Prentice, K.J., & Wingfield, A. (2004). Adult
age differences in judgments of semantic fit. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 25, 135-143.
Fallon, M., Kuchinsky, S., & Wingfield, A. (2004). The
salience of linguistic clauses in young and older adults'
running memory for speech. Experimental Aging Research,
30, 359- 371.
Peelle, J.E., McMillan, C., Moore, P., Grossman, M., &
Wingfield, A. (2004). Dissociable patterns of brain activity
during comprehension of rapid and syntactically complex
speech: Evidence from fMRI. Brain and Language, 91,
315-325.
Wingfield, A., Tun, P.A., O'Kane, G., & Peelle, J.E. (2005).
Language comprehension in complex environments: Distraction
by competing speech in young and older adult listeners.
In S.P. Shohov (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research,
Vol. 33 (pp 3-38). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
McCoy, S.L., Tun, P.A., Cox, L.C., Colangelo, M., Stewart,
R.A., & Wingfield, A. (2005). Hearing loss and perceptual
effort: Downstream effects on older adults' memory for speech.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58A,
22-33.
Kahana, M.J., Dolan, E.D., Sauder, C,L., & Wingfield, A.
(2005). Intrusions in episodic recall: Age differences in
editing of overt responses. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological
Sciences, 60B, P92-P97.
Sekuler, R., Kahana, M.J., McLaughlin, C., Golomb, J.,
& Wingfield, A. (2005). Preservation of episodic visual
recognition memory in aging. Experimental Aging Research,
31, 1-13.
McCoy, S.L., Tun, P.A., Cox, L.C., & Wingfield, A. (2005).
Aging in a fast- paced world: Rapid speech and its effect
on understanding. The ASHA Leader, July 12, pp. 30-31.
Wingfield, A., Tun, P.A., & McCoy, S.L. (2005). Hearing
loss in older adulthood: What it is and how it interacts
with cognitive performance. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 14, 144-148.
Peelle, J.E., & Wingfield, A. (2005). Dissociations in
perceptual learning revealed by adult age differences in
adaptation to time-compressed speech. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 31, 1315-1330.
Fallon, M., Peelle, J.E. & Wingfield, A. (2006). Spoken
sentence processing in young and older adults modulated
by task demands: Evidence from self-paced listening. Journal
of Genrontology: Psychological Sciences, 61B, P310-P17.
Little, D.M., Prentice, K.J., Darrow, A.W., & Wingfield,
A. (2005). Listening to spoken text: Adult age differences
as revealed by self-paced listening. Experimental Aging
Research, 31, 313-330.
Wingfield, A., Brownell, H., & Hoyte, K. (2006). Variable
solutions to the same problem: Aberrant practice effects
in object naming by three aphasic patients. Brain and
Language, 97, 351-356.
Little, D.M., McGrath, L.M., Prentice, K.J., & Wingfield,
A. (2006). Semantic encoding of spoken sentences: Adult
aging and the preservation of conceptual short-term memory.
Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 487-511.
Titone, D.A., Koh, C.K., Kjelgaard, M.M., Bruce, S., Speer,
S,R., & Wingfield, A. (2006). Age-related impairments in
the revision of syntactic misanalyses: Effects of prosody.
Language and Speech, 49, 75-99.
Wingfield, A., McCoy, S.L., Peelle, J.E., Tun, P.A., &
Cox, L.C. (2006). Effects of adult aging and hearing loss
on comprehension of rapid speech varying in syntacticcomplexity.
Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 17, 487-497.
Zaromb, F.M., Howard, M.W., Dolan, E.D., Sirotin, Y.B.,
Tully, M., Wingfield, A., & Kahana, M.J. (2006). Temporal
associations and prior-list intrusions in free recall. Journal
of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition,
32, 792-804.
Sekuler, R., McLaughlin, C., Kahana, M.J., Wingfield, A.,
& Yotsumoto, Y. (2006). Short-term visual recognition and
temporal order memory are both well-preserved in aging.
Psychology and Aging, 21, 632-637.
Wingfield, A., Tun, P.A., McCoy, S.L.., Stewart, R.A.,
& Cox, L.C. (2006). Sensory and cognitive constraints in
comprehension of spoken language in adult aging. Seminars
in Hearing, 27, 273-283.
Wingfield, A., & Grossman, M. (2006). Language and the
aging brain: Patterns of neural compensation revealed by
functional brain imaging. Journal of Neurophysiology,
96, 2830-2839.
Wingfield, A., Speech perception and the comprehension
of spoken language: The effects of cognitive and sensory
change in adult aging", In D. Park and N. Schwarz (Eds.);
Second Edition. Cognitive Aging: A Primer. Philadelphia:
Psychology Press. In press.
Howard, M.W., Kahana, M.J., & Wingfield, A. Aging and contextual
binding: Modeling recency and lag-recency with the temporal
context model. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. In
press.
Miller, L.M.S., Cohen, J.A., & Wingfield, A. Knowledge
reduces demands on working memory during reading. Memory
and Cognition. In press.
Reilly, J., Troiani, V., Grossman, M., & Wingfield, A.
An introduction to hearing loss and screening procedures
for behavioral research. Behavior Research Methods.
In press.
Golomb, J.D., Peelle, J.E., & Wingfield, A. Effects of
stimulus variability and adult aging on adaptation to time-compressed
speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
In press.
Last update: January 9, 2007. E-mail comments
or questions to the webmaster.
