AGING, DISTRACTION, AND THE BENEFITS OF PREDICTABLE LOCATION

Three experiments examined the impact on reading time for younger and older adults in the absence vs. presence of distraction (marked by fon t type) in either fixed predictable locations (Experiments 1 and 2) or unpredictable locations (Experiment 3). Consistent with earlier work (S. L. Connelly, L. Hasher, & R. T Zacks, 1991), older adults were mar kedly disrupted, relative to young adults, when distraction was presen t in unpredictable locations. When the location of distraction was fix ed, however, the very large disadvantage that older adults otherwise e xperienced (slowed by as much as 46 s) diminished substantially (to as little as 2 s). Fixed location also eliminated the relatedness effect , by which older adults are especially susceptible to distraction from meaningfully related material.