Age differences in outdated information processing during news reports reading.
In two experiments, the authors explored whether there are any age differences associated with the ability to process outdated information during news reports comprehension. Younger and older participants (mean age: 70 years old) read passages in which a cause was first said to be responsible for the occurrence of a news event. New elements emerged from the investigation in progress and revealed that the original cause was incorrect. Inference response times indicated that older adults more than younger ones took advantage of an alternative cause mentioned in the text to put the outdated information in the background, whereas younger readers probably kept both causes activated. The research tested the concepts involved with age differences in updating situation model.
Maury
Pascale
P
Department of Development, Cognition, and Acquisition, Montpellier III University, Montpellier, France. pascale.maury@univ-montp3.fr
Besse
Florence
F
Martin
Sophie
S
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D015331:Cohort Studies; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D012107:Research Design; D012660:Semantics; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult