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Research

Maryellen C. Macdonald

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Professor, Department of Psychology
mcmacdonald@wisc.edu
http://psych.wisc.edu/faculty/bio/kmMacDonald.html

http://lcnl.wisc.edu/people/mcm/

Language and Memory in Aging

My research investigates language comprehension and language production and the role of working memory in these two processes. Working memory (another common term is "short term memory") is the memory system that holds information temporarily while you are using language and doing many everyday tasks. Working memory capacity typically declines somewhat in healthy aging, and it declines dramatically in Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias. Conversely, experience using language accumulates throughout the lifespan, with the result that elderly adults often outperform young adults on some measures of language knowledge such as vocabulary tests. My colleagues and I investigate the effects of language experience and working memory capacity on language comprehension and production abilities. Some of our studies investigate experience in young adults, for example, comparing individuals who read a great deal vs. ones who do less reading, or by giving people different kinds of reading experiences over the course of a month and examining the effects of these experiences on comprehension abilities.

Other studies compare comprehension and production processes in young adults, older adults, and patients with Alzheimer's Disease. In these studies, my colleagues and I assess working memory capacity and its relationship to different aspects of language, such as use and comprehension of pronouns like "he" and "she," understanding verb and noun meanings, reading abilities, and other language processes.

I am also involved in assessing memory and language abilities in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, for example, examining the relationship between memory abilities in survey participants, now in their 60's, to their performance on high school achievement tests in the 1950's.

Representative Publications
Dagerman, K.S., MacDonald, M.C., & Harm, M. (2006). Aging and the use of context in ambiguity resolution: Complex changes from simple slowing. Cognitive Science, 30, 311-345.

MacDonald, M.C., Almor, A., Henderson, V.W., Kempler, D., & Andersen, E.S. (2001). Assessing working memory and language comprehension in Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 78, 17-42.

Almor, A., MacDonald, M.C., Kempler, D., Andersen, E.S., & Tyler, L.K. (2001). Comprehension of long distance number agreement in probable Alzheimer's disease. Language and Cognitive Processes, 16, 35-63.

Almor, A., Kempler, D., MacDonald, M.C., Andersen, E.S., & Tyler, L.K. (1999). Why do Alzheimer patients have difficulty with pronouns? Working memory, semantics, and reference in comprehension and production in Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 67, 202-227.

Kempler, D., Almor, A., MacDonald, M.C., & Andersen, E. (1999). Working with limited memory: Sentence comprehension in Alzheimer's disease. In S. Kemper & R. Kliegl (Eds.), Constraints on language: Aging, grammar, and memory. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Kempler, D., Almor, A., & MacDonald, M.C. (1998). Teasing apart the contribution of memory and language impairments in Alzheimer's disease: An on-line study of sentence comprehension. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 7, 61-67.

Kempler, D., Almor, A., Tyler, L.K., Andersen, E.S., & MacDonald, M.C. (1998). Sentence comprehension in Alzheimer's disease: A comparison of off-line vs. on-line sentence processing. Brain and Language, 64, 297-316.

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