Online priming of agent and patient thematic roles and related verbs in younger and older adults

Background: Online priming studies have found that verbs (e.g., arrest) provide immediate access to typical agents (e.g., policeman) and patients (e.g., criminal) by generating expectancies from a verb to its related thematic roles and vice versa. These findings have contributed significantly to theories of thematic roles. However, these investigations and theoretical implications have been limited to young adults. Investigating verb–thematic role processing in older adults is important for understanding the semantic system in normal ageing, which aids in assessment, characterisation, and treatment of disorders that affect semantic processing in older adults.

Aims: The current study investigates verb–thematic role priming in young adults and extends the investigation to older adults. It was predicted that both groups would show priming effects but that the older adult group would have slower reaction times overall.

Methods & Procedures: Using a lexical decision task with a short stimulus onset asynchrony (250 ms), the current study investigated bidirectional agent–verb and patient–verb priming of younger and older adults.

Outcomes & Results: Consistent with our predictions, the younger participants exhibited bidirectional priming for agent–verb pairs and patient–verb pairs in the participant and item analyses. The older adults also showed priming for patient–verb pairs, but unexpectedly they did not exhibit priming for agent–verb pairs. Reaction times for the older participants were slower than the reaction times for the younger participants in all conditions.

Conclusions: Neither participant nor methodological factors readily explain the unexpected results. Theoretical explanations for the findings are explored.