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. 2008 Mar;23(1):131-53.
doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.23.1.131.

Self-regulated reading in adulthood

Elizabeth A L Stine-Morrow  1 , Lisa M Soederberg Miller, Danielle D Gagne, Christopher Hertzog
Affiliations

Self-regulated reading in adulthood

Elizabeth A L Stine-Morrow et al. Psychol Aging. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

Young and older adults read a series of passages of 3 different genres for an immediate assessment of text memory (measured by recall and true/false questions). Word-by-word reading times were measured and decomposed into components reflecting resource allocation to particular linguistic processes using regression. Allocation to word and textbase processes showed some consistency across the 3 text types and was predictive of memory performance. Older adults allocated more time to word and textbase processes than the young adults did but showed enhanced contextual facilitation. Structural equation modeling showed that greater resource allocation to word processes was required among readers with relatively low working memory spans and poorer verbal ability and that greater resource allocation to textbase processes was engendered by higher verbal ability. Results are discussed in terms of a model of self-regulated language processing suggesting that older readers may compensate for processing deficiencies through greater reliance on discourse context and on increases in resource allocation that are enabled through growth in crystallized ability.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Resource allocation to word (left panel) and conceptual (right panel) processing as a function of age and genre.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Resource allocation to word (left panel) and conceptual (right panel) processing as a function of age and recall level.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structural equation models for interrelationships among ability, resource allocation, and memory performance.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Best-fit structural equation model for discourse processing (unless otherwise noted coefficients were the same for young and old; differences are indicated as young/old).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Best-fit structural equation model for sentence processing (unless otherwise noted coefficients were the same for young and old; differences are indicated as young/old).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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