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Reading comprehension and aging: Does an age-related difference necessarily mean impairment?

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Abstract

Background and aims: This research investigated reading comprehension in groups of younger-old (55–69 years) and older-old (70–90 years) Italian adults to determine age-related differences and explore their extent. The second aim of our research was to investigate the nature of individual age-related differences and their relation to working memory and metacognition. Methods: In Experiment 1, 250 participants read two passages, a narrative and an expository text, and answered a series of multiple-choice inferential questions. In Experiment 2, three groups: younger-old good and poor comprehenders and olderold poor comprehenders were compared for working memory and metacognitive tasks. Results: Although older-old adults had some difficulty compared with younger-old, a comparison with normative control scores (comprehension level achieved at the end of 8th grade compulsory education) showed that their reading comprehension of a narrative text was adequate, demonstrating basic comprehension skills for everyday life. Younger-old good comprehenders had higher working memory and metacognitive scores than younger-old poor comprehenders, consistent with results obtained in the literature with younger participants. Older-old adults had poorer working memory than younger-old poor comprehenders, although they did not differ in metacognitive performance. Conclusions: Results show that age differences influence the relationship between reading comprehension and memory and metacognition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Rossana De Beni, Paola Palladino, Erika Borella & Stefano Lo Presti

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  1. Rossana De Beni
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  2. Paola Palladino
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  3. Erika Borella
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  4. Stefano Lo Presti
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Correspondence to Paola Palladino.

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De Beni, R., Palladino, P., Borella, E. et al. Reading comprehension and aging: Does an age-related difference necessarily mean impairment?. Aging Clin Exp Res 15, 67–76 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324482

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324482

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