title: Reading comprehension and aging: does an age-related difference necessarily mean impairment?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This research investigated reading comprehension in groups of younger-old (55-69 years) and older-old (70-90 years) Italian adults to determine age-related differences and explore their extent. The second aim of our research was to investigate the nature of individual age-related differences and their relation to working memory and metacognition.
  
  
  METHODS
  In Experiment 1,250 participants read two passages, a narrative and an expository text, and answered a series of multiple-choice inferential questions. In Experiment 2, three groups: younger-old good and poor comprehenders and older-old poor comprehenders were compared for working memory and metacognitive tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although older-old adults had some difficulty compared with younger-old, a comparison with normative control scores (comprehension level achieved at the end of 8th grade compulsory education) showed that their reading comprehension of a narrative text was adequate, demonstrating basic comprehension skills for everyday life. Younger-old good comprehenders had higher working memory and metacognitive scores than younger-old poor comprehenders, consistent with results obtained in the literature with younger participants. Older-old adults had poorer working memory than younger-old poor comprehenders, although they did not differ in metacognitive performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results show that age differences influence the relationship between reading comprehension and memory and metacognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Rossana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Beni
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palladino
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Borella
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lo Presti
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004411:Dyslexia, Acquired / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011932:Reading