Age-related changes in processing explicit and implicit language.

After reading short prose passages, older (M = 66.5 years) and younger (M = 18.3 years) adults verified the meaning of a test sentence which represented either a paraphrase or an inference from the preceding passage. There were no age differences in accuracy of verification performance with immediate testing, but older subjects made significantly more errors on a delayed test. Verification latency was longer for inference than paraphrase test sentences for both age groups, and older subjects were slower than younger for both types of information. There was no evidence for a selective deficit in processing implicit versus explicit meaning. It was concluded that older persons may be deficient in the retention of meaningful information, but that this deficit is not based on an inability to comprehend linguistic meaning.

Stimulus competition and ear differences in memory for sentences.

Recognition memory was compared within subjects for meaningful sentences presented either non-competitively (monaural condition) or accompanied by non-verbal (monaural-noise condition) or verbal (dichotic condition) input. A right-ear advantage for sentence memory occurred with dichotic but not with monaural presentation. Error analyses showed evidence of qualitative differences in processing under competitive and non-competitive conditions. These results suggest that different types of linguistic processing may be involved in investigations of auditory asymmetries which employ monaural and dichotic presentation.

Levels of processing and acute effects of marijuana on memory.

Subjects' memory for lists of words was tested following the smoking of a single marijuana cigarette containing 1.4% delta 9-THC or a placebo cigarette. During list presentation, each word was preceded by an orienting question which required one of four types of linguistic information (orthographic, phonetic, semantic, or syntactic). Free recall tests were administered immediately after each list (IFR) and following IFR for all five lists (FFR). Results indicated that subjects recalled fewer words while intoxicated with marijuana. There was no interaction between drug condition and level of processing in IFR, but a complex relationship mediated by time was seen in FFR. Drug subjects were more likely to forget meaningfully processed words on recently presented lists. The data provided little support for the hypothesis that marijuana differentially affects the processing and retention of different types of linguistic information.

Defeated and joyless: potential measures of change in drug abuse characteristics.

Defeated and Joyless scales were developed from a questionnaire given to 54 normal, 53 alcoholic, and 28 opiate addict subjects. The Defeated scale differentiates the alcoholics and addicts from normals but not from each other, whereas the Joyless scale differentiates addicts from both alcoholics and normals. When shown to 48 college students, a film about poverty increased the Joyless score, as well as other measures, but had little effect on the Defeated score. These scales appear to distinguish between self-concept (Defeated) and mood (Joyless) components of hypophoria, an affective disorder hypothesized to be associated with drug abuse.