Adult Age Differences in Effects of Text Spacing on Eye Movements During Reading

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human Factors
• Vision Science

Background:

• Older adults (65+) experience greater reading disruption from large text spacing changes compared to younger adults (18-30).
• The impact of subtle, simultaneous changes in inter-letter and inter-word spacing on older readers remains under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if older adults exhibit heightened sensitivity to condensed and expanded text spacing.
• To explore the interplay between text spacing, word frequency, and age-related reading differences.

Main Methods:

• Eye movements of young and older adults were recorded while reading sentences with normal, condensed (10-20% smaller), or expanded (10-20% larger) inter-letter and inter-word spacing.
• Sentences contained high or low frequency target words, matched for length and predictability.

Main Results:

• Condensed text spacing significantly disrupted reading more for older adults than younger adults.
• Expanded spacing did not disproportionately affect older readers.
• A larger word frequency effect was observed in older adults, but this did not interact with spacing conditions.

Conclusions:

• Condensed text spacing primarily impacts older readers through visual processing deficits, not by further impairing lexical processing.
• Findings suggest age-related visual impairments are more susceptible to subtle text spacing alterations.