Influence of Text Genre on Adults' Monitoring of Understanding and Recall

Abstract We examined the influence of text genre on monitoring of understanding and recall in adults. Younger and older adults' sentence reading times, sentence rereadings, and memory for texts containing inconsistent information were assessed in an on-line analysis. Adults' reading times were affected by text genre, with age differences found for expository but not narrative passages. Reading times of all adults were hindered when reading expository passages, with proportionately more disruption for older adults. Although younger and older adults reread sentences more frequently in expository passages, they recalled more information in narratives and were more likely to accurately comment on inconsistencies after reading narratives. Use of a general rereading strategy was related to recall of narrative and expository passages, but the ability to selectively reread problematic text information was related only to expository text recall. Results indicate that adults' evaluation and regulation of understanding is affected by text genre and that effective regulation of understanding, as measured by the ability to selectively reread text problems, is more critical to expository than narrative text recall.