Adult aging and listening patterns for spoken prose: Spontaneous segmentation versus self-paced listening

Young and older adults were allowed to control the delivery rate of spoken prose for later recall using two methods. In one method (spontaneous segmen tation), participants were allowed to interrupt speech passages whenever th ey wished. In the other method (self-paced listening), speech passages were presented in segments, with participants allowed to initiate presentation of subsequent segments via a key-press. Older adults' segment sizes in the spontaneous segmentation condition were unchanged when the passages were pr esented for a second time. By contrast, pause latencies to initiating subse quent segments in the self-paced listening condition were affected by exper ience with the passage. Results suggested that the segment sizes selected i n the spontaneous segmentation condition were driven by the linguistic stru cture and prosody of the speech, rather than reflecting ineffective metamem ory on the part of the older adults.