Age modulated the facilitatory imageability effect in visual word recognition, with older adults showing an increased benefit from high imageability compared to younger adults, suggesting older adults rely more on word imageability possibly due to compensatory mechanisms.
Imageability positively predicted performance in the lexical decision task across participants.
Vocabulary positively predicted performance in the lexical decision task.
Age modulated the facilitatory imageability effect, with older adults showing a greater benefit from high imageability than younger adults.
The increased imageability effect in older adults did not vary reliably according to participants' vocabulary level.
Older adults' increased reliance on imageability provides new evidence for the involvement of sensorimotor representations in facilitating lexical access.
This research suggests that the ease with which a word brings a mental image to mind — called 'imageability' — helps people recognize words more quickly, and that this benefit is even stronger for older adults than for younger adults. In the study, 47 younger adults and 47 older adults completed a task where they had to decide as quickly as possible whether a string of letters was a real word. Words that are easy to picture (like 'apple') were recognized faster than words that are harder to picture (like 'justice'), and this advantage was larger for the older participants. The researchers also found that having a larger vocabulary helped word recognition for all participants, but vocabulary size did not explain why older adults benefited more from imageability. This means the age-related effect on imageability is separate from the general vocabulary advantage that tends to come with age. The study also accounted for other individual differences, such as how vividly people form mental images and a personality trait called alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings), to ensure these factors were not driving the results. This research suggests that as people age, they may increasingly rely on mental imagery and sensory associations to help retrieve words — possibly as a way of compensating for other changes in how the brain processes language. The findings highlight the practical importance of including older adults in language research, since the way age shapes word recognition appears to be a significant and previously underappreciated factor.
Aka S, Mathey S. (2026). Influence of Imageability on Visual Word Recognition in Young and Older Adults.. Journal of psycholinguistic research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-026-10300-6