Text comprehension in middle aged adults: is there anything wrong?
Two experiments tested text comprehension skills in adults varying in age from 20 to 69 years. A coherence judgment task (n = 39), in which the pragmatic connection of two sentences had to be evaluated, did not yield any age effects. Both error rates and reaction times were largely independent of age. In a word recognition paradigm (n = 60), testing the strength of different text representation levels, there was a gradual, linear decrease in performance with age, accompanied by a similarly gradual increase in processing times. The results confirm that aging affects comprehension under high memory demands, but spares the conceptual, situation-based levels. Most importantly, it was shown that these changes become apparent during middle age already. Implications for education and neuropsychology are discussed.
Ferstl
Evelyn C
EC
Max-Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig Day Clinic of Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. ferstl@cbs.mpg.de
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*