Critical thinking about fables: examining language production and comprehension in adolescents.

Purpose: This study was designed primarily to determine if a critical-thinking task involving fables would elicit greater syntactic complexity than a conversational task in adolescents. Another purpose was to determine how well adolescents understand critical-thinking questions about fables.

Method: Forty adolescents (N=20 boys and 20 girls; mean age=14 years) with typical language development answered critical-thinking questions about the deeper meanings of fables.

Conversational and narrative speaking in adolescents: examining the use of complex syntax.

Purpose: Few tools are available to examine the narrative speaking ability of adolescents. Hence, the authors designed a new narrative task and sought to determine whether it would elicit a higher level of syntactic complexity than a conversational task in adolescents with typical language development.

Method: Forty adolescents (Mage = 14;0 [years;months]; 20 boys and 20 girls) were individually interviewed.

Spoken language production in adults: examining age-related differences in syntactic complexity.

The use of complex syntax in the spoken discourse of young, middle-aged, and older adults was examined. The purpose of the study was to determine if syntactic complexity would show an age-related decline. Language samples were elicited from healthy adults in their 20 s, 40 s, and 60 s (n=20 per group) using a conversational (CON) task and a peer conflict resolution (PCT) task.