Department of Psychology - Gerontopsychology

• Healthy aging
• Cognitive aging
• Language use (corpus analysis)
• Real-life cognitive engagement
• Contexts
• Ambulatory assessment

My PhD project examines relations between language use (e.g., vocabulary richness, grammatical complexity) and contexts, and its implication to healthy aging and cognitive aging. I use speech samples that are collected in the laboratory and real life to understand age-related differences in language use in various contexts. Mixed models, structural equation models, and actor-partner interdependence models are applied to analyze the data.

Luo, M., Neysari, M., Schneider, G., Martin, M., & Demiray, B. (under review). Language use across young, middle-aged and older adults: A laboratory observation study of couples’ conflict conversations. Cognitive Science – A Multidisciplinary Journal.

Demiray, B., Luo, M., Tejeda-Padron, A., & Mehl, M. (accepted). Sounds of Healthy Aging: Assessing Everyday Social and Cognitive Activity from Ecologically Sampled Ambient Audio Data. Book chapter.

Luo, M., Debelak, R., Schneider, G., Martin, M., & Demiray, B. (in prep.). Language Use With Familiar Versus Unfamiliar Interlocutors: Comparing Real-World Conversations in Young and Older Adults. Plan to submit to The Journals of Gerontology Series B.

Demiray, B., Luo, M., & Martin, M. (in prep.). People laugh more while talking about their past than their future: Functions of conversational time travel in everyday life.

Luo, M., Schneider, G., Martin, M., & Demiray, B. (2019, May). Real-Life Language Accommodation and Mood: A Naturalistic Observation Study of Young and Older Adults. In Luo, M. & Katana, M. (Chair), Associations Between Real-Life Cognitive Processes and Well-Being of Healthy Older Adults. Symposium conducted at the 9th International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics European Region Congress 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Luo, M., Neysari, M., Schneider, G., Martin, M., & Demiray, B. (2019, February). Effects of Age and Interlocutors on Language Use: Conflict Conversations of Couples Varying in Age. Paper presentation at the Corpora for Language and Aging Research (CLARe) 4, Helsinki, Finland.

Luo, M., Schneider, G., Robbins, M. L., Martin, M., & Demiray, B. (2019, February). Real-life Language Use Across Different Interlocutors: Two Naturalistic Observation Studies of Adults Varying in Age. Paper presentation at the Corpora for Language and Aging Research (CLARe) 4, Helsinki, Finland.

Luo, M., Demiray, B., Martin, M. (2018, June). Real-life language use across different social contexts: A naturalistic observation study of young and older adults. Poster presentation at the 11th International Francophone Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Montreux, Switzerland.

Luo, M., Demiray, B., & Martin, M. (2017, October). Micro-longitudinal real-life cognitive activity profiles as outcome measures in healthy aging research. Poster presented at the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE) Academy, Zurich, Switzerland.

Minxia Luo, Burcu Demiray, Matthias Mehl, & Mike Martin, (2017, June). Verbal activities in the context of everyday conversations: A naturalistic observation study. Poster presented at the 5th biennial conference of the society for ambulatory assessment, Luxembourg.

Luo, M. (2018, October). Aging and health: A psychological perspective. A lecture as part of the lecture series “Seniorenzahnmedizin” at the Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich.

Luo, M., Sadana, R., De la Fuente Núñez, V.. (2018, February). National ageing and health policies: Alignment with Healthy Ageing. An invited talk at the United Nations 56th Commission for Social Development, New York.

Luo, M. (2017, November). Aging and health: A psychological perspective. A lecture as part of the lecture series “Seniorenzahnmedizin” at the Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich.

Luo, M., De La Fuente Núñez, V., Sadana, R. (2017, May). National frameworks on Healthy Ageing: A policy review on 15+ countries. An invited talk at the meeting of the WHO Working Group on Healthy Ageing Global Strategy Progress Indicators in Mexico City.