Association between declarative memory and language ability in older Chinese by education level

Association between declarative memory and language ability in older Chinese by education level Xie Chenwei Feng Yun William Shi-Yuan Wang Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong Polytechnic University chenwei7.xie@connect .polyu.hk yunr.feng@connect.po lyu.hk Department of Electronic Engineering Chinese University of Hong Kong shiyuan.w.wang@conne ct.polyu.hk Abstract Episodic memory and semantic memory are two subsystems of declarative memory which is considered to be related to language ability. We investigated the interdependence of the episodic and semantic memory and their association with syntactic complexity in two groups of Chinese older adults with higher and lower education levels. The results indicate that episodic memory and semantic memory are significantly correlated with each other, but only episodic memory shows a significant relationship with syntactic complexity. Educational attainment has a substantial influence on the performance of memory tasks, but no influence on the syntactic complexity. The study provides new evidence from Chinese older adults for clarifying the association between declarative memory and syntactic processing and the benefits from education on memory preservation in later life. 1 Introduction Nowadays, China is facing an aging population. According to the general definition of an aging society published by the United Nations in 19561, when a country or region’s population aged 65 and above accounts for 7% of the total population, the country or region enters the aged stage. China has around 88 million elderly people aged 65 and above as early as 2000, accounting for 7% of the total population, which means that China officially entered the aging society two decades ago. For the past over ten years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China 2, this number has continued to climb and exceeded 160 million by the latest 2018, which has nearly doubled from 2000 and occupied 11.9% of the entire population. Previous studies suggested that older adults are vulnerable to memory decline (for a review, see Buckner, 2004) and language attrition (for a review, see Burke and Shafto, 2011). However, since most of these studies have been based on the WEIRD population (Henrich et al., 2010a; Henrich et al., 2010b), it remains to be established what changes 1 Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, The Aging of Populations and Its Economic and Social Implications (New York: United Nations, 1956), 7. 2 For details, see http://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=C01&zb=A0305&s j=2017. Chinese older adults undergo in terms of memory ability and language usage, and how memory ability and language usage interact with each other in older Chinese. 1.1 Declarative and Procedure Model Memory is not a single process but has at least two major forms, namely, declarative memory and procedure memory which are both associated with language ability, as proposed in the declarative and procedure model. (Ullman, 2001a, 2001b, 2004). Declarative memory is an explicit and …

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