NARRATIVE COMPREHENSION AND AGING - THE FATE OF COMPLETED GOAL INFORMATION

Previous research has shown that older adults are able to use situatio n models in a manner similar to younger adults. However, other areas o f cognition have shown that older adults are less able to remove irrel evant information from the current stream of processing. Accordingly, the authors tested whether older and younger adults would differ in re ducing the availability of information about a completed goal in a sit uation model during narrative comprehension. In 2 experiments, memory probes tested for the availability of protagonist goal information dur ing reading when it was either failed goal, completed goal, or neutral information. The results for both age groups showed that goal informa tion was most available in the failed goal condition, less available i n the completed goal condition, and least available in the neutral con dition. No reliable differences between younger and older adults in th e pattern of response times were observed. Reading time data were also examined to explore the possibility that older adults engage in a lon ger wrap-up period after a goal is completed, but no such difference w as found.