creators_name: Hartley, James type: preprint datestamp: 1998-02-09 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:06 metadata_visibility: show title: Designing Instructional Text for Older Readers: A Literature Review subjects: appl-cog-psy full_text_status: public keywords: text design, gerontology, text comprehension, writing, individual differences, evaluation, written communication, readability abstract: This paper addresses the question of whether or not we need to design text differently for older readers. Research with relatively simple text indicates that there is little firm evidence to suggest that making design changes for older readers (except for increasing type-sizes) facilitates their performance. However, research with more complex text settings suggests that changes made to facilitate the understanding of complex text appear to hinder older readers. These findings suggest that older readers should be asked to play a part in the user-testing stage of the development of instructional text. date: 1994 date_type: published refereed: TRUE citation: Hartley, James (1994) Designing Instructional Text for Older Readers: A Literature Review. [Preprint] document_url: http://cogprints.org/592/1/199802002.html