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Two international linguistic researchers, Roger Kruez and Richard Roberts, explore why language ability remains resilient and how it shapes our lives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue: How Aging Affects Language . . . and How Language Affects Aging
Chapter 1: Setting the Stage
Language by Design
Comparing Apples to Oranges
Components of Cognition
The Compensation of Language
Chapter 2: The Language of Sight and Sound
Do You Hear What I See?
A Look at Hearing
Tinnitus
Voice Quality
Speaking of Vision
Presbyopia
Making Sense of Feelings
Chapter 3: The Story of Speech
Word Finding
Word Naming
Speech Disfluency
Stuttering
Aphasia
Dyslexia
Foreign Accent Syndrome
Chapter 4: Word Domination
Stressed Out
Spelling Ability
Vocabulary Size
Verbal Fluency
Grammatical Complexity
Off-Topic Verbosity
Telling Stories
Chapter 5: Using Language
Pragmatic Competence
Nonliteral Language
Can Spring Chickens Teach Old Dogs New Tricks?
Elderspeak
Living with More Than One Language
The Benefits of Bilingualism?
Chapter 6: The Write Stuff
Healing Through Language
Reminiscing
Late Bloomers
Writer's Block
The Destroyer of Minds
Lessons from the Nuns
Fiction is Stronger Than Truth
Epilogue
About the Authors
References

About the Author

Roger J. Kreuz is currently Associate Dean at the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of Memphis, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1993. Since earning his PhD from Princeton University in 1987, he has also held appointments at Duke University, Memphis State University, The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands, and the University of Pittsburgh. Richard M. Roberts received his PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Memphis in 1992. From 1993-2006, he taught at the University of Maryland University College, Asian and European Divisions. Since 2006, he has worked as a Foreign Service agent at the US Department of State, with appointments in Niger, Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia.

Reviews

"Changing Minds provides a clear understanding of the connection between aging and language. Most importantly, it provides sets of practices that can help you harness the power of language to live longer and better." – Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest

"Roger Kreuz and Richard Roberts have done it again — and made it look easy! Their new book, Changing Minds, is a superbly written and highly accessible overview of a neglected topic, namely, how aging affects a person’s ability to communicate through language. Anyone who is getting older or who interacts with anyone who is getting older — and, of course, this is everyone — should read this fun and informative book." – John Kounios, coauthor of The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain; Professor of Psychology, Drexel University

"From the first page, I found myself reading this book with the same care and enthusiasm as I would a novel. It is a well-researched, well-crafted, and utterly fascinating exploration into how we use words and how language becomes us as we age. It goes beyond the structure of language and language acquisition and change and instead gives a rich cultural context necessary to appreciate the complexity of language." – Kate de Medeiros, O’Toole Family Professor, Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University, Ohio