IPSIBAT   26217
INSTITUTO DE PSICOLOGIA BASICA, APLICADA Y TECNOLOGIA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Differences in semantic feature production between healthy older and young adults
Autor/es:
SANDRA MARTÍNEZ; ANA COMESAÑA; LETICIA VIVAS; BRENDA PICCOLO; ANA GARCÍA CONI; JORGE VIVAS
Lugar:
Chicago
Reunión:
Conferencia; Alzheimer Association International Conference AAIC 2018; 2018
Institución organizadora:
Alzheimer Association
Resumen:
Introduction:Semantic feature production norms consist of ordered lists of features producedby a group of subjects to define certain concepts. Most of the normative datacurrently available in different languages were extracted from samples composedby young adults. However, scientific literature suggests that older adults canshow some particularities in the organization of their conceptual knowledge. Semanticfeature production between old and young adults was compared focusing on the quantityand quality of feature produced.Method: sample included old (> 65 years old)and young adults (aged between 20 and 40 years), with middle-high educationallevel, without neurological impairment. Thirty participants produced featuresfor each of the 30 concepts selected from the Spanish semantic featureproduction norms (Vivas et al., 2017). No time limit was established. The totalquantity of features produced by group per concept was calculated. The firstfeature produced by each participant per concept was categorized according toWu & Barsalou´s coding scheme, considering the major categories: Taxonomic Category,Situation, Entity and Introspective properties.Results: Young produced significantly morefeatures than old adults (t = 3.483; p < .001). A Cross-table analysis wascarried out to compare the type of feature produced as first response. TheContingency Coefficient indicated a significant difference between groups (C = .262; p < .001). Young adults produced 59.2% of taxonomic featureswhile old produced 37.5%. Furthermore, the former produced 2.6% ofintrospective features, while the latter produced 14.8%. The proportion of eachresponse type within each group did not differ, showing that the most frequent responsewas Taxonomic, followed by Situational, Entity and Introspective.Conclusions: Young adults were more fluent in thefeature production task. Although both produced taxonomic features as firstresponse in a higher percentage, the fact that young generated more of thosefeatures than old adults might reflect their preference for taxonomicorganization, as has been observed in other studies. Introspective features,such as feelings or memories associated with the concept, appeared to berelevant information for old but not for young adults. The former seemed to givemore importance to their self-experience with those objects.