Previous research suggests that age-related deficits in test processing are due in part to declining working memory capacity. The proposed research examines if age differences are minimized when a) readers are experts in the domain that the text is about, and b) the text is well- organized. Expertise and text organization should promote efficient reading strategies for Older as well as Young readers by minimizing the demands of comprehension on working memory. Armed with expert knowledge and guided by well-organized text, readers should readily identify and focus on relevant information, which should guide the construction of the text representation. The domain of aviation is examined because it is well-defined, has real world importance, and should minimize age-cohort differences between Older and Young subjects. The experiments also examine the impact of expertise and text organization on Older and Young readers of average and high verbal ability. Previous research suggests that verbal ability may mediate many age-related differences. The experiments will identify the impact of expertise and text organization on both age and verbal ability. The results should illuminate the causes of age-related declines in text processing, and suggest ways to design texts that are tailored to the cognitive strengths of elders. Eight experiments will test if expertise and text organization minimize age differences in comprehension processes. Experiments 1-4 test average verbal Older and Young subjects. Experiments 1-2 (and 5-6) test if Older and Young pilots use more efficient focus strategies than nonpilots when reading aviation narratives, and if Young nonpilots use more efficient strategies than Older nonpilots. Experiments 3-4 (and 7-8) test if pilots' focus strategies facilitate referent assignment and inference processes involved in integrating old and new information into a coherent representation. Nonpilots (or pilots reading narratives outside their domain of expertise) are likely to use focus strategies that interfere with comprehension. All experiments also measure working memory capacity to test if expertise and text organization minimize age differences in text comprehension by influencing working memory. In all experiments, reading time and accuracy are recorded, and the results analyzed with ANOVA and correlational techniques.
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