Healthy aging appears to support the ability to tell stories and express mental states - such as beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions - through language. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by the University of Udine in collaboration with the University of Turin. The research involved 90 participants divided into three age groups: young adults (20–40), older adults (65–74), and senior adults (75–86).
Published in Scientific Reports, the study examined three areas of narrative production: productivity (including word count, speech rate, and proportion of informative words), linguistic markers of subjectivity (adjectives and adverbs expressing viewpoint or emotion), and the spontaneous expression of emotions. Researchers also analyzed how these narrative features relate to the ability to understand and represent one’s own and others’ mental states.
Results show that adults aged 65–74 use the highest number of linguistic “modalizers”, expressions indicating degrees of certainty or uncertainty. By contrast, participants aged 75–86 showed a marked decline in spontaneously describing emotions. The ability to express desires, intentions, and feelings was strongly linked to emotional vocabulary and the use of informative words.
According to the authors, these findings deepen understanding of how narrative skills, subjectivity, and socio-cognitive abilities evolve throughout the aging process, insights that may help refine models of communication, cognitive well-being, and empathy in older adults.