Communication abilities are known to decline with age. In daily life, such abilities are frequently of the non-literal type, which require more cognitive resources to be processed. Since these resources tend to diminish with age, this study seeks to identify a possible effect of age on non-literal language abilities. Forty young and 40 older adults of two different education levels were compared on their non-literal and literal language abilities. Results suggest that age does not affect the processing of non-literal language but could affect some preliminary components of the task, thought to require more cognitive resources. This study does not provide direct evidence to suggest that elderly participants experience specific difficulties in processing non-literal language.
