Just like how having multiple modifiers can either help or hinder our understanding of a sentence, linguistic redundancy can affect how well younger and older adults comprehend information. It may seem counterintuitive, but redundant modifiers can actually make it easier for us to focus on the intended meaning of a sentence. However, when it comes to older adults, age-related decline in processing speed and memory can change things. In this study, researchers wanted to see how linguistic redundancy affected comprehension in both younger and older adults. They found that while redundant color modifiers improved comprehension for both age groups, redundant state modifiers always made it more difficult for listeners to understand in real time. Surprisingly though, memory tests showed that objects described with redundant state modifiers were recognized faster. Both younger and older adults perceived the redundant descriptions as equally informative. These results suggest that the impact of linguistic redundancy remains consistent across adulthood, but can vary depending on the type of modifier used, the visual context, and what aspect of comprehension is being measured.

Abstract
Redundant modifiers can facilitate referential interpretation by narrowing attention to intended referents. This is intriguing because, on traditional accounts, redundancy should impair comprehension. Little is known, however, about the effects of redundancy on older adults’ comprehension. Older adults may show different patterns due to age-related decline (e.g., processing speed and memory) or their greater proclivity for linguistic redundancy, as suggested in language production studies. The present study explores the effects of linguistic redundancy on younger and older listeners’ incremental referential processing, judgments of informativity, and downstream memory performance. In an eye tracking task, gaze was monitored as listeners followed instructions from a social robot referring to a unique object within a multi-object display. Critical trials were varied in terms of modifier type (“…closed/purple/[NONE] umbrella”) and whether displays contained another object matching target properties (closed purple notebook), making modifiers less effective at narrowing attention. Relative to unmodified descriptions, redundant color modifiers facilitated comprehension, particularly when they narrowed attention to a single referent. Descriptions with redundant state modifiers always impaired real-time comprehension. In contrast, memory measures showed faster recognition of objects previously described with redundant state modifiers. Although color and state descriptions had different effects on referential processing and memory, informativity judgments showed participants perceived them as informationally redundant to the same extent relative to unmodified descriptions. Importantly, the patterns did not differ by listener age. Together, the results show that the effects of linguistic redundancy are stable across adulthood but vary as a function of modifier type, visual context, and the measured phenomenon.

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