By Julie Nariman
I'm putting my foot down. He's skating on thin ice. Her words
had a hollow ring.
The English language is packed with idioms, and we use them so
often that we take them for granted. Are the idioms above familiar
to you? Try this one: Vote with your feet.
Constance
Dean Qualls, a certified speech-language pathologist, is studying
older adults' understanding of figurative language. Undergraduates
Angela Canfield and Pamela Barth are working with Qualls recruiting
participants and collecting and entering data. "I got into speech-language
pathology through the vocal area, studying voice and jazz as an
undergraduate. As I began my studies, though, I fell in love with
the brain," laughs Qualls, an accomplished gospel and jazz singer.
"My interest has always been about what happens to language and
communication as we get older," says Qualls. She hypothesizes that
the elderly will show a decreased ability to understand figurative
language, most likely because of memory difficulties. "It is well
accepted that working memory, like remembering a telephone number
long enough to dial it, declines with age."
Last year, Qualls published a study on idiom comprehension in African
American and white fifth-graders in Tennessee and Arkansas (Mid-South),
and compared their performance to students in Oregon. She found
that both sociocultural and regional factors had a significant influence
on students' comprehension. "Skate on thin ice," for instance, was
understood by 71 percent of the African American students, but by
only 54 percent of the white students. "Putting one's foot down"
was familiar to 43 percent of the Mid-South students and 73 percent
of the Oregon students.Qualls says, "This research tells us more
about how children learn and process idioms, and that familiarity
is important to understanding them. This hasn't been looked at with
adults yet," says Qualls. (By the way: Vote with your feet
means that if you don't like a situation, you can leave it.)
Qualls is particularly interested in the language processes of
elderly people with aphasia, a language disorder which follows stroke,
and dementia, which is related to senility and Alzheimer's disease
and marked by a decline in memory, judgment, and orientation. "The
first step is to find out if normal older adults understand idioms
differently, and if there is a relationship between their working
memory and how they understand figures of speech," she points out.
"Then we will have a basis for understanding figurative language
in people with aphasia and dementia.
"We're hung up on youth in this country," says Qualls, "but I've
always loved older people. If we can understand the changes that
take place in older people's language, we can tap into their potential,
utilize their experience and knowledge, and, most importantly, find
ways to improve their quality of life."
Constance Dean Qualls, Ph.D., is assistant professor of communication
disorders in the College of Health and Human Development, 105 Moore
Bldg., University Park, PA 16802; 814-863-6248; cdq2@psu.edu.
She is also director and principal investigator of the Communication,
Cognition, and Aging Lab (CCAL), where she is conducting research
funded by the National Institute on Aging, in conjunction with the
Boston University of Medicine and the Penn State Gerontology Center.
Undergraduate students Angela Canfield and Pamela Barth work on
both of Qualls' figurative language in aging research projects.
Writer Julie Nariman graduated in May 2000 with degrees in film/video
and comparative literature.
