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Investigating Comprehension Differences Between Active and Passive Sentences in a Young and Older Adult Population

Yang, Dorothy (2009) Investigating Comprehension Differences Between Active and Passive Sentences in a Young and Older Adult Population. Undergraduate Thesis, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The current investigation sought to determine whether normal, non-impaired young and older adults performed differentially on the active and passive sentences of the Computerized Revised Token Test - Active/Passive (CRTT-A/P). Twenty-five young adults (18 to 30 years old) and twenty-five older adults (50 to 80 years old) completed this study.The first purpose of this study was to determine if the two groups (i.e., young and older) differed significantly in their performance (as measured by overall mean scores) on the two sentence types (i.e., active and passive sentences) across each of the four subtests. Significant differences between subtests were found; participants obtained significantly higher scores on Subtest VIII than on Subtest V and Subtest VI.The second purpose of this study was to determine if the two groups differed significantly in their efficiency scores on the two sentence types across each of the four subtests. It was found that (1) participants obtained significantly higher efficiency scores on Subtest VII than on Subtests V and VI and that (2) participants obtained significantly higher efficiency scores on Subtest VIII than on Subtest VI.The final purpose of this study was to determine if the two groups differed significantly in their response times on the two sentence types across each of the four subtests. It was found that: (1) participants responded more quickly to the passive sentence type than to the active sentence type across all four subtests; (2) the older group responded more quickly on Subtest V than on Subtests VI and VIII; and (3) the older group responded more quickly on Subtest VII than on Subtests VI and VIII.When differences between the two groups were examined for all of the measures, only one significant difference was found (the older group performed significantly slower than the young group on Subtests VI and VIII). These findings demonstrate that language comprehension abilities remain relatively constant with age. While the CRTT-A/P did not detect any significant comprehension differences between active and passive sentences in young and older individuals, this test has yet to be administered to various pathological groups (e.g., persons with agrammatic comprehension). This study thus provides preliminary data for future comparisons with pathological populations. Such studies are equally important for advancing our understanding of the way we comprehend language and form grammatical meaning.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Yang, Dorothyddy2@pitt.eduDDY2
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee ChairMcNeil, Malcolm Rmcneil@pitt.eduMCNEIL
Committee MemberRobin, Donald Arobind@uthscsa.edu
Committee MemberDickey, Michael Wmdickey@pitt.eduMDICKEY
Committee MemberDoyle, Patrick Jpatrick.doyle@med.va.gov
Committee MemberPratt, Sheila Rspratt@pitt.eduSPRATT
Date: 22 May 2009
Date Type: Completion
Defense Date: 10 July 2008
Approval Date: 22 May 2009
Submission Date: 28 July 2008
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Communication Science and Disorders
David C. Frederick Honors College
Degree: BPhil - Bachelor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Undergraduate Thesis
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: active; age; agrammatic comprehension; CRTT; language comprehension; passive; sentence comprehension
Other ID: http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07282008-123004/, etd-07282008-123004
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2011 19:54
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 13:47
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8685

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