The Role of Executive Functioning in Fiction and Nonfiction Comprehension in Young and Older Adults

• In Event: Exploring the Interaction Between Neuroscience and Educational Research

Abstract

Executive functions (EF), higher-order neurocognitive processes, contribute directly to reading comprehension in young adults. Given the increasing age of the US population, the importance of reading comprehension for positive life outcomes, and known age-related declines in EF, an understanding of neurocognitive processes underlying reading comprehension in older adults is essential. We examined these processes in 91 18- to 93-year-old adults. EF contributed to reading comprehension across age, but different patterns of relations emerged across text types and age groups, confirming declines in direct measure of EF in older adults. Our findings underscore the important responsibility of education researchers to examine directly the academic and cognitive processes in older adults directly to better serve education needs of this understudied group.

Authors

• Kelly B. Cartwright, Christopher Newport University

• Nicklas C Phillips, Christopher Newport University