title: Sentence comprehension in older adults: evidence for risky processing strategies.
abstract: BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Previous research has suggested that older adults compensate for age-related declines in sentence comprehension ability by reading more slowly. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that older adults adopt a riskier strategy than younger adults, in which they rely on expectations based on probabilistic cues.
  
  
  METHODS
  Older and younger adults read late closure sentences in a self-paced reading task (e.g., "When the waiter served the woman the food was still too hot."). The subordinate verbs varied in whether or not they occurred in ditransitive constructions (served vs. kissed).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older adults showed less evidence of processing disruptions at the ambiguous noun phrase (the food) than younger adults. At the main verb, the older and younger adults showed evidence of processing disruption in the same conditions, but the processing disruptions were greater in older adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results are interpreted as support for the hypothesis that older adults adopt "risky" strategies during sentence comprehension.
authors: a Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences , University of Arizona , Tucson , Arizona , USA.
authors: Gayle
authors: G
authors: DeDe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D032882:Comprehension; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult