Patterns of On-line Resource Allocation to Narrative Text by Younger and Older Readers

Younger and older adults read narrative texts word by word for immediate recall. There were no age differences in recall performance, showing that older adults were effective in narrative memory. Analysis of reading times demonstrated the existence of interindividual variability in sensitivity to text demands, which was predictive of subsequent memory performance. Contrary to the view that older readers do not encode text analytically, for these naturalistic narratives both younger and older adults optimized memory through the allocation of processing resources to the construction of a proposition-based representation of content. Overall, attentiveness to narrative structure also facilitated narrative memory, but this relationship was more reliable among older readers.