Idea selection for propositional language production

Abstract

The ability to select an idea from an array of competing options is critical for successful propositional language production, and deficient idea selection contributes to propositional language impairments in clinical populations. We investigate whether three clinical idea selection tasks are sensitive to selection demands in neurologically unimpaired adults, and whether performance relates to age. 154 neurologically normal adults aged 18-89 years completed a neuropsychological baseline and three idea selection tasks. Stimuli either activated a dominant response or multiple competing response options. All three idea selection tasks were sensitive to selection demands in terms of reaction times but not errors. Older age was associated with greater effects of selection demands on Sentence Completion task performance only. Exploratory analyses revealed a potential role of executive functioning. Overall, we demonstrate that clinical idea selection tasks are sensitive to idea selection demands in a non-clinical sample, and show some age-related differences in performance.

Keywords: Selection; conceptualization; message formulation; sentence generation; spoken language production.