Describing and explaining age, period, and cohort trends in Americans' vocabulary knowledge.

ABSTRACT: For a quarter of a century researchers have been documenting and trying to explain trends in Americans' vocabulary knowledge using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and its WORDSUM test. Trends in Americans' vocabulary knowledge have important practical implications-for example, for educational policy and practice-and speak to the American workforce's competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. We contribute to this debate by analyzing 1978-2018 GSS data using an improved analytical approach that is consistent with theoretical notions of cohort effects and that permits simultaneously estimating inter-cohort average differences and intra-cohort life-course changes. We find that WORDSUM scores peak around age 35 and gradually decline in older ages; the scores were significantly

SUBMITTER: Luo L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10119018 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature