Marcela Lima Silagi1, Vivian Urbanejo Romero2, Leticia Lessa Mansur2, Marcia Radanovic1. 1. Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo - USP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. 2. Department of Physiotherapy, Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences and Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo - USP, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To determine the effect of age and education on inferential comprehension from written texts in normal individuals. METHODS: A total of 224 normal adults were stratified into nine groups according to age (young: 18-39 years, adults: 40-59 years, and elderly: 60-79 years) and educational level (low ≤4 years, medium: 5-8 years and high >8 years) and were evaluated through the battery La gestion de l'implicite (Implicit Information Management Test) to determine the ability to make inferences through different types of questions: explicit, logical, distractor, pragmatic and others. RESULTS: The elderly showed worse performance for total score and distractor questions. Regarding educational level, all groups differed on explicit, logical, distractor questions, and on total test score. Subjects with high schooling performed better on pragmatic inferences and others. CONCLUSION: Age influence on the comprehension of inferences may be due to difficulties in attention and executive functions. The strong effect of education can be explained by the interaction of inferential abilities with other cognitive functions such as working memory, vocabulary span, as well as world knowledge.
PURPOSE: To determine the effect of age and education on inferential comprehension from written texts in normal individuals. METHODS: A total of 224 normal adults were stratified into nine groups according to age (young: 18-39 years, adults: 40-59 years, and elderly: 60-79 years) and educational level (low ≤4 years, medium: 5-8 years and high >8 years) and were evaluated through the battery La gestion de l'implicite (Implicit Information Management Test) to determine the ability to make inferences through different types of questions: explicit, logical, distractor, pragmatic and others. RESULTS: The elderly showed worse performance for total score and distractor questions. Regarding educational level, all groups differed on explicit, logical, distractor questions, and on total test score. Subjects with high schooling performed better on pragmatic inferences and others. CONCLUSION: Age influence on the comprehension of inferences may be due to difficulties in attention and executive functions. The strong effect of education can be explained by the interaction of inferential abilities with other cognitive functions such as working memory, vocabulary span, as well as world knowledge.
Authors: V Soler; S Sourdet; L Balardy; G Abellan van Kan; D Brechemier; M E Rougé-Bugat; N Tavassoli; M Cassagne; F Malecaze; F Nourhashémi; B Vellas Journal: J Nutr Health Aging Date: 2016 Impact factor: 4.075
Authors: Zemin Cai; Shukai Zheng; Yanhong Huang; William W Au; Zhaolong Qiu; Kusheng Wu Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2021-03-18 Impact factor: 3.390