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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2123
igaa057.2123
Abstracts
Session 5760 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Natural, Everyday Language Use Provides a Window into the Integrity of Older Adults’ Cognitive Functioning
Polsinelli Angelina 1 Moseley Suzanne 2 Grilli Matthew 3 Glisky Elizabeth 3 Mehl Matthias 4 1 
Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
2 
MN Epilepsy Group, St Paul, Minnesota, United States
3 
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
4 
University of arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”623 623
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Language use during structured clinical tasks predicts pathological cognitive aging. However, structured tasks reflect only a narrow band of potential communication contexts, which limits the ability to capture cognitive processes manifested in language use under more natural conditions (i.e., minimal constraints). The Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) makes it possible to sample language from the full ecology of individuals’ interactions. As interactions are cognitively complex, language use in everyday life might be especially sensitive to the integrity of higher-order cognitive processes, including executive functions (EF). Using the EAR and a standard EF battery, we show that EF, particularly working memory, is reflected in analytic (e.g. articles and prepositions), complex (e.g. longer words), and specific (e.g. more numbers) language. The EAR provides first evidence that the words used in daily life reflect the integrity of EF and that reliance on less complex language could reflect WM variability among cognitively healthy adults.