Meyer, B. J., Marsiske, M., & Willis, S. L. (1993). Text processing variables predict the readability of everyday documents read by older adults. Reading Research Quarterly, 28(3), 234-249.

Meyer, B.; Marsiske, M.; Willis, S.

1993

Meyer, B. J., Marsiske, M., & Willis, S. L. (1993). Text processing variables predict the readability of everyday documents read by older adults. Reading Research Quarterly, 28(3), 234-249.

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This article presents a model to predict the readability of documents encountered by older adults. The documents studied require readers to answer questions about charts (e.g., bus schedules), labels (e.g., prescriptions), and forms (e.g., tax forms). The components of the model include such factors as discourse structure, emphasis, and position of an answer in a linguistic analysis of the everyday document. 482 Ss (aged 52-93 yrs) took the everyday problems test as well as a psychometric ability battery. The correlation was .54 between the readability scores for test items predicted by the model and the percentage of Ss correctly answering those items. In addition, the more difficult test items as identified by the model were correlated more highly with fluid intelligence abilities, crystallized intelligence abilities, and memory span.

In summary, the present findings may be helpful in understanding four related issues. First, they provide further evidence that text factors help to determine the readability and comprehensibility of text. Second, they suggest that ecologically valid texts, encountered in the everyday world, may also be more or less difficult due to text factors intrinsic in them. Third, the results suggest that more difficult texts may be more difficult because they impose higher intellectual/processing demands, particularly in the domains of fluid and crystallized intelligences, and in working memory. Fourth, the results suggest that it may be possible to construct highly comprehensible everyday printed materials that reduce the intellectual demands imposed on the reader. A large-scale revision of texts found in the everyday world seems like an unlikely short-term goal. Consequently, the results also suggest that it may be possible to instruct older adults in reading strategies geared to comprehending documents.

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