Aging, expertise, and narrative processing.

Abstract

In a study of how aviation expertise influences age differences in narrative processing, young and older pilots and nonpilots read and recalled aviation and general narratives. They chose referents for sentences referring to a protagonist or minor character mentioned 1 sentence (recent character) or 3 sentences (distant character) before this target sentence. All groups chose referents less accurately for sentences about distant and minor characters than about recent and protagonist characters, perhaps because these referents were less likely to be in working memory. Young readers and pilots were more accurate for distant and minor character target sentences in aviation narratives, and recalled aviation narratives more accurately. Expertise did not reduce age differences. Expertise differences may reflect decreased demands on working memory capacity, and age declines may reflect reduced capacity.

Aging and situation model processing

“…The studies discussed above demonstrated that younger and older adults tend to integrate information into the causal structure of the situation model (Radvansky, Copeland, & Zwaan, 2003). They also represent prominent and integral components of the situation model in a similar manner (Morrow et al, 1992). Likewise, younger and older adults display similar temporal updating when there is a substantial time shift in the narrative and spatial updating that involves changes in the availability of an object relative to the protagonist (Morrow et al, 1997;Stine-Morrow et al, 2002).…”

“…In a conceptually related study by Morrow, Leirer, and Altieri (1992), younger and older adults read a series of passages in which there were protagonists as well as minor characters. What was observed was that although there was an age difference in the ability to resolve anaphors that referred to minor characters, there was no such age effect for the protagonist.…”

The effects of aging on remembering intentions: performance on a simulated shopping task

“…In the other, lengthy interruptions were introduced to disrupt movement down the street. The focus on distraction was prompted by numerous findings that older persons are more affected by irrelevant stimuli than younger persons in complex visual search environments (Carlson, Hasher, Connelly, & Zacks, 1995;Morrow, Leirer, & Altieri, 1992;Plude & Hoyer, 1986;Rabbitt, 1965), possibly as a consequence of an inability to inhibit irrelevant inputs (Hasher & Zacks, 1988).…”

Contextual knowledge reduces demands on working memory during reading

“…Although aging represents more than declines in WM, these declines represent a major feature of age-related cognitive change. Several researchers have reasoned that, due to age-related declines in WM, knowledge could be more important with increasing age (e.g., Arbuckle, Vanderleck, Harsany, & Lapidus, 1990;Hultsch & Dixon, 1983;Miller, 2001Miller, , 2003Miller & Stine-Morrow, 1998;Miller, Stine-Morrow, Kirkorian, & Conroy, 2004;Morrow, Leirer, & Altieri, 1992;Morrow, Leirer, Altieri, & Fitzsimmons, 1994).…”