The Effects of Typical Aging on Object-Centered versus Egocentric Spatial Language Processing: An Online Behavioral Study

This study investigates age-related asymmetries in object-centered versus egocentric spatial language processing. We recruited 200 adults (19 – 75 years old) without speech, neurological and psychiatric disorders to participate from online research platform Prolific. They were exposed to two oriented objects, and they were asked to encode their luminance level, relative position, and spatial relation between them. They subsequently answered spatial (object-centered or egocentric) and non-spatial questions, with or without an eye-movement distractor. Reaction time and accuracy were recorded. We hypothesize that aging selectively impairs object-centered spatial language, leading to slower and less accurate responses compared with younger adults, while egocentric and non-spatial language will be relatively preserved. Additionally, eye-movement distraction is expected to disproportionately disrupt object-centered spatial processing across age groups.