G. Elizabeth Rice

The interaction of reader strategies and the organization of text

A model is proposed for the interaction between reader and text in arriving at an identiflcation ofthe overall logical organization to be used by the reader in processing and rernembering the text. Different emphasis patterm provided by the writer for a text on railroads are shown to result in different organizational pattems and types of Information recalled by adults. Recallprotocoh written by adults with different reading strategies are examined for different versions of this text. In addition, other subjects reported their expectations for these versions of the railroad text when asked to read and comment on the text in a sentence-by-sentence manner; the reported expectations show similanties with the model and the recall data.

THE EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES OF ADULTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PROSE RECALL‐PART I

This paper reports a thorough investigation of reading habits and activities which may require skills used in prose recall tasks as they occur in the everyday lives of adults. Over the space of five weeks, fifty‐four participants (18 young, aged 18‐32; 18 middle, aged 40‐54; 18 older, aged over 62) kept structured diaries in which they indicated how they spent their time, as well as the specific materials they had read and how long they had spent reading each item. Analyses were performed on each of 23 reading variables and 20 activity variables. Part I of the paper considers whether there were age and vocabulary differences in activities. Results indicate that while such differences exist, primarily in the amount of time spent reading, everyday activities and reading habits were also related to the requirements of daily life‐‐school, employment, retirement. Part II of the paper uses a cluster analysis of the data to demonstrate that the patterning of everyday activities was more influenced by current sch...

READING BEHAVIOR AND PROSE RECALL PERFORMANCE OF YOUNG AND OLDER ADULTS WITH HIGH AND AVERAGE VERBAL ABILITY

Previous research has demonstrated an interaction between verbal ability and age on performance on prose recall tasks. Older adults of high verbal ability show little or no deficits when compared to young subjects of similar ability, while older adults of average verbal ability recall significantly less than young adults of comparable ability (Meyer & Rice, 1983). Findings presented in this paper show that certain reading behaviors are related to success on prose learning tasks for both young and old adults, and that older adults of average verbal ability have the lowest incidence of these behaviors. Responses to questionnaires and interviews from 50 high verbal ability older adults (over 65) were first compared to those of 50 average verbal ability older adults to determine where differences in reading behavior occur between these ability groups. The older adults were then compared to young adults (18‐32) of varying verbal ability to determine if the reading behaviors identified as facilitating prose rec...

The Effects of Personal Relevance of Topic and Information Type on Older Adults’ Accurate Recall of Written Medical Passages About Osteoarthritis

Objectives:This study investigated the influence of information type (based on whether the text affirmed the reader’s veridical beliefs or disconfirmed the reader’s erroneous beliefs) and self-reported osteoarthritis status on older adults’ accurate recall of written medical passages about osteoarthritis. Methods:One week after reading the passages, adults aged 65 through 80 without osteoarthritis (n= 46) and with osteoarthritis (n= 31) completed a cued recall task that focused on accurate memory of what the passage said. Results:Disconfirming informationwas less accurately recalled than affirming information. Whereas self-reported osteoarthritis status was not significantly (p> .05) related to accurate recall of affirming information, it was significantly (p< .05) related to accurate recall of disconfirming information. Discussion:Older adults with osteoarthritis were more likely than older adults without osteoarthritis to misrepresent the content of the passages as supporting their misconceptions.

RELATION OF EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES OF ADULTS TO THEIR PROSE RECALL PERFORMANCE

This study is concerned with the connection between the everyday activities of adults of different ages and their performance on a prose recall task. Participants were 54 adults, 18 in each of three age groups (18‐32, 40‐54, over 62). Written recall of two 388‐word expository prose passages was used for the prose recall measure. For the activities measures, a structured diary form was used to collect information. Regression analyses showed that the demographic variables of age, education, and verbal ability were the best predictors of prose recall. Total time spent reading and other reading variables were also significantly correlated with recall. In multiple regression analyses a set of prose‐related activities made a significant contribution to explaining the variance in prose recall. The results provide limited support for a “practice” model which argues that performance on prose recall tasks is related to the amount of practice that adults get in similar activities in everyday life.