Aging, memory, and comprehension

There are changes in the ability to comprehend and remember information wit h aging. In general, older adults perform more poorly than younger adults a t tasks that require knowledge of the information that was actually encount ered. However, they can perform as well as or better than younger adults at tasks involving more global levels of understanding, such as in the use of information in a situation model, This increased emphasis on situation mod els may serve to compensate for deficits at lower levels of processing and may be achieved through more focused selective Of situation-defining inform ation, increased dependence on schemas, and broader generation and use of i nferences.