In this study, results are presented of an experiment on the influence of text structure and linguistic markers on the text comprehension of elderly people. A text of a brochure was manipulated on two factors:

By combining these factors four text versions were constructed:

Results: The use of a causal text structure in which explicit linguistic markers are added leads to better overall text comprehension by elderly people. As isolated factors, however, text structure and linguistic markers hardly influenced the text comprehension of elderly people.

In this study, we present the results of an experiment on the influence of text structure and linguistic markers on the text comprehension of different age groups. We manipulated the text of a brochure on two factors: text structure (causal: cause-consequence and problem-solution versus additive: list) and linguistic markers (explicit addition of headings and logical connectives). By combining these factors we constructed four different text versions: (1) causal structure with linguistic markers, (2) causal structure without (explicit) linguistic markers, (3) additive structure with linguistic markers and (4) additive structure without (explicit) linguistic markers.

Results: The use of a causal text structure in which explicit linguistic markers are added leads to better overall text comprehension by elderly people. After reading a text written along these lines, they recall significantly more of the main points than when reading the other text versions. As isolated factors, however, text structure and linguistic markers hardly influenced the text comprehension of elderly people. For the young people an additive structured text with the addition of linguistic markers leads to better text comprehension. They do not seem to benefit from a causally structured text. The addition of linguistic markers only had a positive effect for answering open questions. And to recall the more detailed information linguistic markers distract young people.