The study of deaf users of signed languages, who often experience delays in primary language (L1) acquisition, permits a unique opportunity to examine the effects of aging on the processing of an L1 acquired under delayed or protracted development. A cohort of 107 congenitally deaf adult signers ages 45-85 years who were exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) either in infancy, early childhood, or late childhood were tested using an ASL sentence repetition test. Participants repeated 20 sentences that gradually increased in length and complexity. Logistic mixed-effects regression with the variables of chronological age (CA) and age of acquisition (AoA) was used to assess sentence repetition accuracy. Results showed that CA was a significant predictor, with increased age being associated with decreased likelihood to reproduce a sentence correctly (odds ratio [OR] = 0.56, p = .010). In addition, effects of AoA were observed. Relative to native deaf signers, those who acquired ASL in early childhood were less likely to successfully reproduce a sentence (OR = 0.42, p = .003), as were subjects who learned ASL in late childhood (OR = 0.27, p < .001). These data show that aging affects verbatim recall in deaf users of ASL and that the age of sign language acquisition has a significant and lasting effect on repetition ability, even after decades of sign language use. These data show evidence for life-span continuity of early life effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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年龄对美国手语句子重复的影响。

对经常在第一语言 (L1) 习得中遇到延迟的手语聋人用户的研究提供了一个独特的机会来检查衰老对在延迟或长期发展下获得的 L1 处理的影响。一组 107 名年龄在 45-85 岁之间的先天性失聪成年手语手语者在婴儿期、幼儿期或儿童晚期接触过美国手语 (ASL)，他们使用 ASL 句子重复测试进行了测试。参与者重复 20 个句子，这些句子的长度和复杂性逐渐增加。使用实际年龄 (CA) 和习得年龄 (AoA) 变量的逻辑混合效应回归来评估句子重复的准确性。结果表明，CA 是一个重要的预测因子，年龄增加与正确重述句子的可能性降低相关（比值比 [OR] = 0.56，p = .010）。此外，还观察到了 AoA 的影响。相对于本土失聪手语者，那些在童年早期学习 ASL 的人不太可能成功地重述一个句子 (OR = 0.42, p = .003)，在儿童晚期学习 ASL 的受试者也是如此 (OR = 0.27, p < .001) ). 这些数据表明，老化会影响使用 ASL 的聋人用户的逐字记忆，并且手语习得的年龄对重复能力有显着而持久的影响，即使在使用手语数十年后也是如此。这些数据显示了早年影响的生命周期连续性的证据。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。相对于本土失聪手语者，那些在童年早期学习 ASL 的人不太可能成功地重述一个句子 (OR = 0.42, p = .003)，在儿童晚期学习 ASL 的受试者也是如此 (OR = 0.27, p < .001) ). 这些数据表明，老化会影响使用 ASL 的聋人用户的逐字记忆，并且手语习得的年龄对重复能力有显着而持久的影响，即使在使用手语数十年后也是如此。这些数据显示了早年影响的生命周期连续性的证据。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。相对于本土失聪手语者，那些在童年早期学习 ASL 的人不太可能成功地重述一个句子 (OR = 0.42, p = .003)，在儿童晚期学习 ASL 的受试者也是如此 (OR = 0.27, p < .001) ). 这些数据表明，老化会影响使用 ASL 的聋人用户的逐字记忆，并且手语习得的年龄对重复能力有显着而持久的影响，即使在使用手语数十年后也是如此。这些数据显示了早年影响的生命周期连续性的证据。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。这些数据表明，老化会影响使用 ASL 的聋人用户的逐字记忆，并且手语习得的年龄对重复能力有显着而持久的影响，即使在使用手语数十年后也是如此。这些数据显示了早年影响的生命周期连续性的证据。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。这些数据表明，老化会影响使用 ASL 的聋人用户的逐字记忆，并且手语习得的年龄对重复能力有显着而持久的影响，即使在使用手语数十年后也是如此。这些数据显示了早年影响的生命周期连续性的证据。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。