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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Language
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1434506
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Psychology of Language View all articles

Propositional Density: Cognitive Impairment and Aging

Provisionally accepted
Chaimae Harrag Chaimae Harrag 1*Abdelkader Sabil Abdelkader Sabil 2Manuel C. Conceição Manuel C. Conceição 3Gabriel Radvansky Gabriel Radvansky 1
  • 1 University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, United States
  • 2 Hassan Premier University, Settat, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco
  • 3 University of Algarve, Faro, Faro, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    It is important to understand the relationship between cognitive abilities and language processing. Here, we explore a burgeoning area of research that harnesses semantic indices to predict cognitive impairment and track cognitive decline. One such index, propositional density, quantifies the information conveyed per language segment. Despite some variation stemming from methodological, sampling, and measurement differences, we suggest that propositional density has diagnostic and assessment value. This paper surveys existing studies that have used propositional density in the context of cognitive aging and impairment and offer some insights into the use of this index to highlight differences in cognition. We also suggest further explorations of basic research involving this concept, and some applications for assessing cognitive health.

    Keywords: Propositional density, cognitive aging, cognitive impairment, Dementia, Aphasia

    Received: 17 May 2024; Accepted: 16 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Harrag, Sabil, Conceição and Radvansky. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chaimae Harrag, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.