This study investigated age differences in the way in which attentional resources are allocated to expository text and whether these differences are moderated by content preexposure. The organization of the preexposure materials was manipulated to test the hypothesis that a change in organization across two presentations would evoke more processing effort (i.e., a “mismatch effect”). After preexposure, reading time was measured as younger and older adults read a target text to produce recall, answer comprehension questions, and solve a novel problem. Relative to the young, older readers allocated more time as they encountered new discourse entities and showed a stronger serial position effect, which are patterns of resource allocation that suggest more extensive processing of the discourse situation. Younger adults took advantage of repeated exposure to produce more extensive reproduction of text content, as well as more text-specific solutions to solve a problem. Older adults generated more elaborated inferences and were similar to young adults in terms of the dimensional complexity of problem solutions. Whereas younger readers showed weak evidence for a mismatch effect, older readers did not. These data are consistent with the proposal that older readers favor the situation model over textbase content in allocating resources to text, but this effect was not enhanced by introducing organizational difficulty in reprocessing.
Adams, C., Smith, M.C., Nyquist, L., & Perlmutter, M. (1997). Adult age-group differences in recall for the literal and interpretive meanings of narrative text. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 52B, 187–195.
2.
Blanchard-Fields, F., Chen, Y., & Norris, L. (1997). Everyday problem solving across the adult lifespan: Influence of domain specificity and cognitive appraisal. Psychology and Aging, 12, 684–693.
3.
Britton, B.K. (1994). Understanding expository text: Building mental structures to induce insights. In M.A. Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 641–674). New York: Academic Press.
4.
Britton, B.K., & Tesser, A. (1982). Effects of prior knowledge on use of cognitive capacity in three complex cognitive tasks. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 21, 421–436.
5.
Charness, N. (1981). Aging and skilled problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110, 21–38.
Cohen, G. (1979). Language comprehension in old age. Cognitive Psychology, 11, 412–429.
8.
Ellis, C.H., Parente, F.J., & Walker, C.W. (1974). Coding and varied input versus repetition in human memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 102, 284–290.
9.
Gernsbacher, M.A. (1990). Language comprehension as structure building. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
10.
Gould, O.N., Trevithick, L., & Dixon, R.A. (1991). Adult age differences in elaborations produced during prose recall. Psychology and Aging, 6, 93–99.
11.
Graesser, A.C., Haberlandt, K., & Koizumi, D. (1987). How is reading time influenced by knowledge-based inferences and world knowledge? In B.K. Britton & S.M. Glynn (Eds.), Executive control processes in reading(pp. 217–251). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
12.
Haberlandt, K. (1984). Components of sentence and word reading times. In D.E. Kieras & M.A. Just (Eds.), New methods in reading comprehension research(pp. 219–251). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
13.
Harris, J.L., Rogers, W.A., & Qualls, C.D. (1998). Written language comprehension in younger and older adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 41, 603–617.
14.
Hess, T.M. (1995). Aging and the impact of casual connections on text comprehension and memory. Aging and Cognition, 2, 216–230.
15.
James, L.E. (2004). Meeting Mr. Farmer versus meeting a farmer: Specific effects of aging on learning proper names. Psychology and Aging, 19, 515–522.
16.
Keppel, G. (1982). Design and analysis: A researcher's handbook (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
17.
Keppel, G., & Wickens, T.D. (2004). Design and analysis: A researcher's handbook (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
18.
Kintsch, W. (1994). Text comprehension, memory, and learning. American Psychologist, 49, 294–303.
19.
Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
Kintsch, W., & van Dijk, T.A. (1978). Toward a model of text comprehension and production. Psychological Review, 85, 363–394.
21.
Levy, B.A., Campsall, J., Browne, J., Cooper, D., Waterhouse, C., & Wilson, C. (1995). Reading fluency: Episodic integration across texts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 1169–1185.
22.
Little, D.M., Prentice, K.J., Darrow, A.W., & Wingfield, A. (2005). Listening to spoken text: Adult age differences as revealed by self-paced listening. Experimental Aging Research, 31, 313–330.
23.
Lorch, R.F., & Myers, J.L. (1990). Regression analyses of repeated measures data in cognitive research. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, 149–157.
24.
Mannes, S. (1994). Strategic processing of text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 22, 213–246.
25.
Mannes, S., & Hoyes, S.M. (1996). Reinstating knowledge during reading: A strategic process. Discourse Processes, 21, 105–130.
26.
Mannes, S.M., & Kintsch, W. (1987). Knowledge organization and text organization. Cognition and Instruction, 4, 91–115.
27.
Mayer, R.E. (1983). Can you repeat that? Qualitative effects of repetitions and advance organizers on learning from science prose. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 40–49.
28.
McNamara, D.S. (2001). Reading both high-coherence and low-coherence texts: Effects of text sequence and prior knowledge. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 51–62.
29.
McNamara, D.S., & Kintsch, W. (1996). Learning from text: Effects of prior knowledge and text coherence. Discourse Processes, 22, 247–287.
30.
Meyer, B.J.F., Russo, C., & Talbot, A. (1995). Discourse comprehension and problem solving: Decisions about the treatment of breast cancer by women across the lifespan. Psychology and Aging, 10, 84–103.
31.
Miles, J.R., & Stine-Morrow, E.A.L. (2004). Adult age differences in self-regulated learning from reading sentences. Psychology and Aging, 19, 626–636.
32.
Miller, L.M.S., & Stine-Morrow, E.A.L. (1998). Aging and the effects of knowledge on on-line reading strategies. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 53, 223–233.
33.
Miller, L.M.S., Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Kirkorian, H., & Conroy, M. (2004). Age differences in knowledge-driven reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 811–821.
34.
Millis, K.K., King, A., & Kim, H.J. (2000). Updating situation models from descriptive texts: A test of the situational operator model. Discourse Processes, 30, 201–236.
35.
Millis, K.K., Simon, S., & tenBroek, N.S. (1998). Resource allocation during the rereading of scientific texts. Memory & Cognition, 26, 232–246.
36.
O'Brien, E.J., & Myers, J.L. (1985). When comprehension difficulty improves memory for text. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11, 12–21.
37.
Poignant, A. (1967). Animals of Australia. New York: Dodd, Mead.
38.
Radvansky, G.A. (1999). Aging, memory, and comprehension. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 49–53.
39.
Radvansky, G.A., Zwaan, R.A., Curiel, J.M., & Copeland, D.E. (2001). Situation models and aging. Psychology and Aging, 16, 145–160.
40.
Raney, G., Therriault, D.J., & Minkoff, S.R.B. (2000). Repetition effects from paraphrased text: Evidence for an integrated representation model of text representation. Discourse Processes, 29, 61–81.
41.
Rawson, K.A., & Kintsch, W. (2002). How does background information improve memory for text content?Memory & Cognition, 30, 768–778.
42.
Schmalhofer, F., & Glavanov, D. (1986). Three components of understanding a programmer's manual: Verbatim, propositional, and situational representation. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 279–294.
43.
Schmidt, R.A., & Bjork, R.A. (1992). New conceptualizations of practice: Common principles in three paradigms suggest new concepts for training. Psychological Science, 2, 207–217.
44.
Sharkey, N.E., & Sharkey, A.J.C. (1987). What is the point of integration? The loci of knowledge-based facilitation in sentence processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 255–276.
45.
Smith, S.W., Rebok, G.W., Smith, W.R., Hall, S.E., & Alvin, M. (1983). Adult age difference in the use of story structure in delayed free recall. Experimental Aging Research, 9, 191–195.
46.
Stanhope, N., Cohen, G., & Conway, M. (1993). Very long-term retention of a novel. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7, 239–256.
47.
Stine, E.A.L., Soederberg, L.M., & Morrow, D.G. (1996). Language and discourse processing through adulthood. In F. Blanchard-Fields & T.M. Hess (Eds.), Perspectives on cognition in adulthood and aging (pp. 255–290). New York: McGraw-Hill.
48.
Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Gagne, D.D., Morrow, D.G., & Herman, B. (2004). Age differences in rereading. Memory & Cognition, 32, 696–710.
49.
Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Loveless, M.K., & Soederberg, L.M. (1996). Resource allocation in on-line reading by younger and older adults. Psychology and Aging, 11, 475–486.
50.
Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Miller, L.M.S., & Hertzog, C. (2006). Aging and self regulated language processing. Psychological Bulletin.
51.
Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Miller, L.M.S., & Leno, R. (2001). Patterns of on-line resource allocation to narrative text by younger and older readers. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 8, 36–53.
52.
Thompson, D. (1997). Practice effects of advance organization with older adults. Educational Gerontology, 23, 207–212.
53.
Thompson, D. (1998). Using advance organizers to facilitate reading comprehension among older adults. Educational Gerontology, 24, 625–638.
54.
Thornton, R., & Light, L.L. (2006). Language comprehension and production in normal aging. In J.E. Birren & K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (6th ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
55.
Titone, D., Prentice, K.J., & Wingfield, A. (2000). Resource allocation during spoken processing: Effects of age and passage difficulty as revealed by self paced listening. Memory & Cognition, 28, 1029–1040.
56.
Turner, A., & Greene, F. (1978). Construction and use of a propositional textbase. JSAS: Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 8(3), No. 1713–1713.
57.
Wechsler, D. (1981). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (7th ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
58.
Zwaan, R.A., Magliano, J.P., & Graesser, A.C. (1995). Dimensions of situation-model construction in narrative comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory, and Cognition, 21, 386–397.
