A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Increase in Linguistic Complexity in Older Adults During COVID-19
Authors: Karabin Megan, Kyröläinen Aki-Juhani, Kuperman Victor
Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
Publication year: 2023
Journal: Experimental Aging Research
Journal name in source: EXPERIMENTAL AGING RESEARCH
Journal acronym: EXP AGING RES
Number of pages: 19
ISSN: 0361-073X
eISSN: 1096-4657
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0361073X.2022.2163831
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1080/0361073X.2022.2163831
Abstract
The reported psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures included a decline in cognitive functioning in older adults. Cognitive functioning is known to correlate with the lexical and syntactic complexity of an individual's linguistic productions. We examined written narratives from the CoSoWELL corpus (v 1.0), collected from over 1,000 U.S. and Canadian older adults (55+ y.o.) before and during the first year of the pandemic. We expected a decrease in the linguistic complexity of the narratives, given the oft-reported reduction in cognitive functioning associated with COVID-19. Contrary to this expectation, all measures of linguistic complexity showed a steady increase from the pre-pandemic level throughout the first year of the global lockdown. We discuss possible reasons for this boost in light of exiting theories of cognition and offer a speculative link between the finding and reports of increased creativity during the pandemic.
The reported psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures included a decline in cognitive functioning in older adults. Cognitive functioning is known to correlate with the lexical and syntactic complexity of an individual's linguistic productions. We examined written narratives from the CoSoWELL corpus (v 1.0), collected from over 1,000 U.S. and Canadian older adults (55+ y.o.) before and during the first year of the pandemic. We expected a decrease in the linguistic complexity of the narratives, given the oft-reported reduction in cognitive functioning associated with COVID-19. Contrary to this expectation, all measures of linguistic complexity showed a steady increase from the pre-pandemic level throughout the first year of the global lockdown. We discuss possible reasons for this boost in light of exiting theories of cognition and offer a speculative link between the finding and reports of increased creativity during the pandemic.
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