Understanding How Older Adults Comprehend Simple Comparative Sentences in a Predicate-Final Language

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of aging on the comprehension of simple comparative sentences in a predicate-final language. Additionally, we explored individual variability among older adults by categorizing them based on chance-level performance. METHOD: A total of 221 participants completed a sentence-picture matching task involving simple comparative constructions, which were manipulated by word order (comparee-first, standard-first). Response accuracy and response time (RT) were analyzed across age groups (young, old) and performance group within older adults (above-chance, chance). RESULTS: For age group comparisons, significant effects of group and word order emerged in RT. Young adults responded significantly faster than older adults in both word orders, with a larger group difference observed for comparee-first than for standard-first constructions. For both age and performance group comparisons, a significant interaction between word order and working memory (WM) scores emerged in RT. Participants with higher WM scores showed faster responses to comparee-first constructions, suggesting that cognitive resources play a role in processing syntactically complex comparative structures. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings indicate that age-related differences in sentence processing can arise even in comparatively simple syntactic forms, revealing their sensitivity to cognitive aging. Importantly, the observed interplay between WM capacity and syntactic structure highlights the necessity of integrating both cognitive and linguistic dimensions in psycholinguistic models of sentence comprehension across the adult lifespan.