Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Theories of information processing and theories of aging
- 2 Effects of aging on verbal abilities: Examination of the psychometric literature
- 3 Aging and individual differences in memory for written discourse
- 4 Geriatric psycholinguistics: Syntactic limitations of oral and written language
- 5 Aging and memory activation: The priming of semantic and episodic memories
- 6 Automatic and effortful semantic processes in old age: Experimental and naturalistic approaches
- 7 Integrating information from discourse: Do older adults show deficits?
- 8 Comprehension of pragmatic implications in young and older adults
- 9 Capacity theory and the processing of inferences
- 10 Age differences in memory for texts: Production deficiency or processing limitations?
- 11 Episodic memory and knowledge interactions across adulthood
- 12 The disorder of naming in Alzheimer's disease
- 13 Language and memory processing in senile dementia Alzheimer's type
- 14 Patterns of language and memory in old age
- Author index
- Subject index
13 - Language and memory processing in senile dementia Alzheimer's type
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Theories of information processing and theories of aging
- 2 Effects of aging on verbal abilities: Examination of the psychometric literature
- 3 Aging and individual differences in memory for written discourse
- 4 Geriatric psycholinguistics: Syntactic limitations of oral and written language
- 5 Aging and memory activation: The priming of semantic and episodic memories
- 6 Automatic and effortful semantic processes in old age: Experimental and naturalistic approaches
- 7 Integrating information from discourse: Do older adults show deficits?
- 8 Comprehension of pragmatic implications in young and older adults
- 9 Capacity theory and the processing of inferences
- 10 Age differences in memory for texts: Production deficiency or processing limitations?
- 11 Episodic memory and knowledge interactions across adulthood
- 12 The disorder of naming in Alzheimer's disease
- 13 Language and memory processing in senile dementia Alzheimer's type
- 14 Patterns of language and memory in old age
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Persons over 65 years of age have increased more than eight fold since 1900, from approximately 3.1 million persons to 26 million in 1980. This represents a rise from 4.1% to 11.3% of the total population (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1984). The U.S. Bureau of Census (1980) projects that the number of persons over age 65 may reach 36.6 million by the year 2000, accounting for 13% of the total population. Further, the proportion of old people who will survive beyond the age of 75, the “old-old” age stratum, will account for 43.3% of the total aged population in the year 2000. In 1970 and 1940, the figures were 38.2% and 29.5%, respectively (Wang, 1977).
Senile dementia Alzheimer's type (SDAT) is a major pathology of old age (Emery, 1985; Pincus & Tucker, 1985; Shamoian, 1984). Estimates of the prevalence of dementia from population studies in Europe and the United States range from 3.9% to 22%; the mean estimate tends to be around 7% across age, rising to more than 22% in the age stratum of 80 years and older (Kay & Bergmann, 1980; Nielson, 1963; Pincus & Tucker, 1985; Primrose, 1962; Woods & Britton, 1985).
Given the increasing number of older people in our society, understanding the nature and causes of SDAT must rank high on research priorities. My goal in this chapter is to elucidate one aspect of SDAT, the deterioration of higher-order cortical processes which is at the center of the symptom complex that characterizes senile dementia Alzheimer's type (Emery, 1984, 1985).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language, Memory, and Aging , pp. 221 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988
- 10
- Cited by