Processing action words (e.g., fork, throw) engages neurocognitive motor representations, consistent with embodied cognition principles. Despite age-related neurocognitive changes that could affect action words, and a rapidly aging population, the impact of healthy aging on action-word processing is poorly understood. Previous research suggests that in lexical tasks demanding semantic access, such as picture naming, higher motor-relatedness can enhance performance (e.g., fork vs. pier)-particularly in older adults, perhaps due to the age-related relative sparing of motor-semantic circuitry, which can support action words. However, motor-relatedness was recently found to affect performance in younger but not older adults in lexical decision. We hypothesized this was due to decreased semantic access in this task, especially in older adults. Here we tested effects of motor-relatedness on 2,174 words in younger and older adults not only in lexical decision but also in reading aloud, in which semantic access is minimal. Mixed-effects regression, controlling for phonological, lexical, and semantic variables, yielded results consistent with our predictions. In lexical decision, younger adults were faster and more accurate at words with higher-motor relatedness, whereas older adults showed no motor-relatedness effects. In reading aloud, neither age group showed such effects. Multiple sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the patterns were robust. Altogether, whereas previous research indicates that in lexical tasks demanding semantic access, higher motor-relatedness can enhance performance, especially in older adults, evidence now suggests that such effects are attenuated with decreased semantic access, which in turn depends on the task as well as aging itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

---

具身认知逐渐成熟：动作词的处理优势受到年龄和任务的调节。


处理动作词（例如，叉子、投掷）涉及神经认知运动表征，与具体认知原则一致。尽管与年龄相关的神经认知变化可能会影响动作词，而且人口迅速老龄化，但健康老龄化对动作词处理的影响却知之甚少。先前的研究表明，在需要语义访问的词汇任务中，例如图片命名，较高的运动相关性可以提高表现（例如，fork vs. pier）——尤其是在老年人中，这可能是由于与年龄相关的运动语义相对较少。电路，可以支持动作词。然而，最近发现运动相关性会影响年轻人的词汇决策能力，但不会影响老年人的词汇决策能力。我们假设这是由于该任务中的语义访问减少，尤其是老年人。在这里，我们测试了运动相关性对年轻人和老年人的 2,174 个单词的影响，不仅在词汇决策方面，而且在朗读方面，其中语义访问是最小的。控制语音、词汇和语义变量的混合效应回归得到的结果与我们的预测一致。在词汇决策方面，年轻人对运动相关性较高的单词更快、更准确，而老年人则没有表现出运动相关性的影响。在朗读中，两个年龄段都没有表现出这样的效果。多重敏感性分析表明这些模式是稳健的。总而言之，虽然之前的研究表明，在需要语义访问的词汇任务中，较高的运动相关性可以提高表现，尤其是在老年人中，但现在的证据表明，这种影响会随着语义访问的减少而减弱，这反过来又取决于任务以及衰老本身。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。