Age-related changes in reading comprehension: an individual-differences perspective

In this study, the authors show that Hannon and Daneman's (2001, Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 103-128) component processes task can be used to investigate individual differences in older readers' comprehension performance, and to determine which components of comprehension are most susceptible to declines with normal aging. Results revealed that the ability to remember new text information, to make inferences about new text information, to access prior knowledge in long-term memory, and to integrate prior knowledge with new text information all accounted for a substantial proportion of variance in older adults' reading comprehension performance. Although there were age-related declines in all of these component processes, the components associated with new learning were more susceptible to age-related declines than were the components associated with accessing what already is known. The findings suggest that age-related declines in reading comprehension might be a consequence of declines in a number of component processes rather than one specific process.