| Macrostructures are information structures that represent the global meaning of a text. They can take many forms including gists, lessons, and summaries and are generated via the recursive application of macro-rules. Past studies of macrostructure processing in ageing indicate that macrostructure generation is well-preserved until very old age. However, older elderly individuals may have more difficulty when macrostructure tasks require more manipulation of textual information. While most previous research has focused on age-related differences, little research has been completed on the effects of the task or stimulus text on macrostructure generation. Existing studies in text linguistics suggest that the archetypes inherent in anthropomorphized characters may facilitate macrostructure generation. The goals of the current study were twofold: (1) to examine age-related differences in macrostructure generation in didactic texts across five tasks---best and alternate lesson generation, proverb ranking, summarization, and narrative production---in younger (62 to 73 years) and older (75 to 94 years) elderly adults, and (2) to examine the effects of task and a stimulus feature---anthropomorphized animal versus human characters---on macrostructure generation. Results indicate no differences in macrostructure generation between the two age groups across all task types. However, the older elderly group less frequently switched perspectives to generate a novel second lesson. Character type, in contrast, affected the quality and accuracy of the macrostructures generated, while having no effect on switching perspectives between lesson types. In addition, results suggest that different macrostructure generation tasks may have different underlying processing requirements. These results are discussed in relation to a model of discourse processing, crystallised intelligence, and cognitive control operations, including inhibition, goal monitoring, coordination, and set shifting. Overall, the current study supports the preservation of macrostructure generation abilities in older adults. However, producing macrostructures representing multiple thematic perspectives may be impaired in aging. In addition, the archetypes associated with anthropomorphized characters may make thematic elements more transparent, thereby facilitating macrostructure production. The findings suggest that successful macrostructure production is more than just the recursive application of macro-rules. Rather, it is a complex cognitive task that requires the application of many cognitive control operations. |
