Contributions of Working Memory and Evaluation and Regulation of Understanding to Adults' Recall of Texts

Abstract

We examined evaluation and regulation in adults and the relative contributions of working memory, components of working memory (storage and processing efficiency), and evaluation and regulation to text recall. Younger and older adults' sentence reading times, sentence rereadings, and memory for texts containing inconsistent information were assessed in an on-line analysis. Older adults detected inconsistent information during reading but failed to selectively regulate understanding by rereading problematic information. Failure to regulate understanding was related to poorer memory for problematic information, overall text recall, and ability to report text inconsistencies. Age differences in selective rereading were substantially reduced when processing efficiency was controlled, and age-related variance in passage recall was substantially reduced when differences in processing efficiency and selective rereading were controlled. Results indicate that processing efficiency and selective rereading contribute to adult age differences in text recall, and highlight the importance of distinguishing between a global strategy of rereading and selective rereading in response to comprehension problems.

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