Anticipatory prediction in older readers.

It is well-established that skilled, young-adult readers rely on predictive processing during online language comprehension; however, fewer studies have investigated whether this extends to healthy, older adults (60 + years). The aim of the present research was to assess whether older readers make u...

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Published in:Memory & Cognition Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 2312 - 2332
Main Authors: Wong, Roslyn, Veldre, Aaron
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Oct2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct2025
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        atl: Anticipatory prediction in older readers.
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        au:
          Wong, Roslyn
          Veldre, Aaron
        affil:
          https://ror.org/0384j8v12 School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
          https://ror.org/01sf06y89 School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
          https://ror.org/03f0f6041 Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
      su:
        Reading
        Psycholinguistics
        Forecasting
        Research funding
        Phonological awareness
        Eye movement measurements
        Descriptive statistics
        Experimental design
        Simulation methods in education
        Data analysis software
        Thought & thinking
        Eye movements
      sug:
        subj:
          Reading
          Psycholinguistics
          Forecasting
          Research funding
          Phonological awareness
          Eye movement measurements
          Descriptive statistics
          Experimental design
          Simulation methods in education
          Data analysis software
          Thought & thinking
          Eye movements
      keyword:
        Aging
        Prediction
        Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology
        Self-paced reading
        Aging
        Prediction
        Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology
        Self-paced reading
      ab: It is well-established that skilled, young-adult readers rely on predictive processing during online language comprehension; however, fewer studies have investigated whether this extends to healthy, older adults (60 + years). The aim of the present research was to assess whether older readers make use of lexical prediction by investigating whether they demonstrate processing costs for incorrect predictions in a controlled experimental design. The eye movements of a sample of older adults (60–86 years) were recorded as they read strongly and weakly constraining sentences containing a predictable word or an unpredictable alternative that was either semantically related or unrelated. To determine whether predictive processing depends on the stimuli presentation format, a second experiment presented the same materials in a self-paced reading task in which each word of a sentence appears one at a time at the readers' own pace. Older adults showed processing benefits for expected input on eye-movement measures of reading. They also showed processing costs for unexpected input across both methodologies, but only when semantically unrelated to the best completion. Taken together, the results suggest that the use of predictive processes remains relatively preserved with age. The implications of these findings for understanding whether prediction is a fundamental component of online language comprehension are discussed.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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