Abstract The study asked whether there are age-related differences in the Implicit Causality values (IC-values) of transitive verbs in younger and older adults. The results are expected to support either linguistic accounts or world-knowledge accounts of the origin of Implicit Causality. Using the traditional sentence-completion task (John VERBs Mary, because …) 124 verbs were investigated in a group of students around age 23 and in a group of older people around age 81. Compared to the students, the older people produced higher proportions of Object-reference with verbs showing Subject-reference in general and higher Subject-reference with verbs showing Object-reference in general. Verb-class analysis in terms of semantic role patterns showed that the IC-values of SE-verbs and ES-verbs were less different in the two groups than those of SE-AP-verbs, AP-verbs, and APpres-verbs. The differences in the two latter classes are significant. The relatively broad similarity in the IC-values of the two age groups supports linguistic accounts of the origin of IC-values. The observed differences, however, point to variation in the perspective on interpersonal events in younger and older adults. It is hypothesized that the latter observation reflects an impact of world knowledge on IC-values in that the social life situations of younger and older adults shape expectations regarding who is causing an interpersonal event somewhat differently in the two age groups.

中文翻译：

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年轻人和老年人的内隐因果关系

摘要研究询问年轻人和老年人的及物动词的隐含因果值（IC值）是否存在与年龄相关的差异。预期结果将支持隐含因果关系起源的语言说明或世界知识说明。使用传统的句子完成任务（John VERBs Mary，因为……），在一组23岁左右的学生和一组81岁左右的老年人中调查了124个动词。与这些学生相比，老年人产生的动词比例更高带有动词的对象引用通常表示主语参考，而带有较高的动词对象引用通常表示宾语参考。根据语义角色模式进行的动词类分析表明，SE-动词和ES-动词的IC值在两组中的差异小于SE-AP-动词，AP-动词和APpres-动词。后两个类别的差异很大。两个年龄组的IC值相对广泛的相似性支持了IC值起源的语言说明。但是，观察到的差异表明，在年轻人和老年人中，人际关系的观点存在差异。据推测，后一种观察反映了世界知识对IC值的影响，因为年轻人和老年人的社交生活状况塑造了关于谁在两个年龄组中引起人际事件的期望。后两个类别的差异很大。两个年龄组的IC值相对广泛的相似性支持了IC值起源的语言说明。但是，观察到的差异表明，在年轻人和老年人中，人际关系的观点存在差异。据推测，后一种观察反映了世界知识对IC值的影响，因为年轻人和老年人的社交生活状况塑造了关于谁在两个年龄组中引起人际事件的期望。后两个类别的差异很大。两个年龄组的IC值相对广泛的相似性支持了IC值起源的语言说明。但是，观察到的差异表明，在年轻人和老年人中，人际关系的观点存在差异。据推测，后一种观察反映了世界知识对IC值的影响，因为年轻人和老年人的社交生活状况塑造了关于谁在两个年龄组中引起人际事件的期望。