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Sue Kemper and coworkers at the University of Kansas have documented marked age-related declines in the complexity of adults’ language. Studies of adults’ diary entries (Kemper, 1987a) reveal age-related declines in the complexity of elderly adults’ written language (cf. Figures 1–3). Elderly adults are significantly less likely to use complex structures such as multiply embedded sentences, THAT- and WH-clauses, gerunds, and participles. The age-related declines in the frequency of embedded clauses are more severe in subject position than in predicate position — suggesting a marked decline in the adults’ ability to process left-branching structures.