To entertain or to focus: Communication goals influence discourse coherence in young and older adults

Older people’s speech is often less globally coherent than young people’s, i.e., less relevant to the topic at hand. This has sometimes been attributed to age-related change in communication goals, yet little is known about how different age groups modify their discourse style when they have different goals. Here, young and older adults produced discourse on a range of topics, first without specific instructions and then when instructed to be as entertaining or as focused as possible. When aiming to entertain, both age groups spoke more quickly and were less globally coherent, particularly in the later stages of responses. This later decline in coherence was more pronounced in the older group. These results indicate that deviations from the topic of discussion can stem from a desire to entertain one’s audience. Thus, a shift in communication goals is a viable possible explanation for age-related declines in coherence.