Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study investigates how adults in the third (60–79 years) and fourth age (80+ years) integrate words across sentence boundaries during reading. Participants read two-sentence passages involving direct lexical repetition or bridging inferences. Both age groups exhibited longer reading times when bridging was required, showing that inference-making is still present despite potential cognitive declines. However, while third-age adults showed immediate sensitivity to inference demands, fourth-age participants demonstrated a delayed response, suggesting compensatory strategies. These findings highlight a key role for semantic knowledge in sustaining reading comprehension in old age. Future research with more diverse samples and longitudinal methods should clarify how age-related changes interact with linguistic resources. Interventions may target processing speeds to support reading comprehension in late adulthood.