Discourse Processing in Healthy Aging in the United States

The Discourse Processing in Healthy Aging database provides demographic data, cognitive data (standardized tests of memory and attention), digital media (audio and/or video), and discourse transcriptions for 11 different discourse tasks from nearly 500 participants across the adult lifespan (20 - 90 years old). This study was conducted to identify changes in discourse processing across the adult lifespan and identify why these changes occur. The aims were to document, cross-sectionally, the aspects of discourse most sensitive to healthy aging across the lifespan and to determine if specific changes were task-dependent. Additionally, the study aimed to cross-sectionally document those cognitive operations involved in specific discourse measures shown to be sensitive to age. These data provide researchers and clinicians information for studying memory, attention, and discourse variations across the adult lifespan, allowing for the study of the interactions between these domains and the opportunity to observe complex cognitive/linguistic behaviors. Demographic information includes age, gender, occupation, language spoken, and education.