Effects of foregrounding on predictive inference generation by normally ageing adults

Foregrounding, a technique that highlights concepts in discourse, was inves tigated as a facilitator of predictive inferencing by normally ageing and y oung adults. Study participants listened to two versions of short discourse stimuli. In foregrounded versions, two consecutive sentences referred to c oncepts that led to an implied outcome. Control passages contained the same key lexical elements, but did not predict the outcome. Inference generatio n was evaluated implicitly, using a word recognition task with a response d eadline. Target words reflected predictive inferences from the foregrounded passages. An influence of foregrounding was evident in recognition accurac y for both groups and in response times for the older subjects. Discussion centres on the partial age-group discrepancy in results, possible mechanism s for the foregrounding effect and potential future clinical implications.