ADULT AGE-DIFFERENCES IN COMPREHENSION AND MEMORY FOR COMPUTER-DISPLAYED AND PRINTED TEXT

Younger and older adults' reading performance for texts presented on-l ine and texts presented on a printed page mere examined. The younger a dults spent less time reading the texts and recalled more information from the texts than. did the older adults. Age differences were not af fected by the method of presenting texts. On-line presentation of text s resulted in superior comprehension evaluation and recall for both yo unger and older adults. Although the participants spent more time read ing texts presented on-line than. printed texts, the extra reading tim e did not account for the superior comprehension evaluation and memory found in the online condition. The present research does not provide arty evidence that age-related deficits in reading performance are att ributable to on-line methods of text presentation, but it does suggest that some on-line presentation methods result in improved comprehensi on and memory for adults.