Study title

This project aimed to understand the cognitive processes underlying adult age differences in reading. Three broad questions were addressed: 1) Do young and older adults differ in their visual processing during reading?; 2) How might age-related changes in visual processing contribute age differences in the reading of Chinese?; 3) Can the visual properties of text be altered to improve reading in older adults? To address these questions, 12 studies were conducted. 11 of these were experimental studies which compared the eye movements of young (aged 18-30 years old) and older (aged 65+ years) adults while reading. The remaining study used a meta-analytic approach. Study 1 - This study examined whether young and older Chinese adults differ in the amount of visual information that they can extract during a single glance when reading. Study 2 - This study examined whether young and older Chinese adults differ in their processing of information about a words lexical frequency (how often it appears in a language) during reading. Study 3 - This study examined whether young and older Chinese adults benefit from having spaces inserted between words in comparison to normal (unspaced) text. Studies 4 & 5 - These studies examined whether young and older readers of English make use of contextual information when reading. Study 6 - This study examined how young and older readers of English make use of visual information when targeting their eye movements. Study 7 - This study examined how young and older readers of English make use of upcoming visual information. Study 8 - This study examined how young and older readers of English are affected by the amount of spacing within text. Study 9 - This study examined how reading instruction affects the eye movement behaviour or young and older readers. Study 10 - This meta-analysis examined the overall patterns of eye movement behaviour during reading for young and older readers of English and Chinese. Study 11 - This study...