Text processing variables predict the readability of everyday documents read by older adults

A model is presented to predict the readability of documents encountered by older adults. The documents studied are contained in the Educational Testing Service's Test of Basic Skills (1977 edition) and require readers to answer questions about charts (e.g., bus schedules), labels (e.g., plant spray labels and prescriptions), and forms (e.g., tax forms). The components of the model came from theoretical and empirical work on discourse processing and include such factors as discourse structure, emphasis, and position of an answer in a linguistic analysis of the everyday document.A sample of 482 adults from 52 to 93 years of age took the everyday problems test as well as a psychometric ability battery. The correlation was .54 (p < .01) between the readability scores for test items predicted by the model and the percentage of older adults correctly answering those items. In addition, the more difficult test items as identified by the model were correlated more highly with fluid intelligence abilities (figural relations and induction), crystallized intelligence abilities (vocabulary, experiential evaluation), and with memory span.