Age-related depreciation in predictive processing during Chinese reading: insights from fixation-related potentials

To overcome methodological deficiencies in previous eye-tracking and event-related potentials (ERP) studies, the fixation-related potential (FRP) approach was used to investigate how aging affects predictive processing in silent Chinese free-view reading. Forty older and 42 young adults participated in the experiment. All of them reported good reading abilities and none suffered from physical, mental, or cognitive diseases. The older participants were over 60 years of age (62.670 +/- 3.018), and they did not differ from the younger group in the schooling years (11.43 vs. 12.10, t = 1.520), and in normal or corrected-to-normal vision (4.917 vs. 4.958, t = 1.787). All participants were native Chinese speakers. The results revealed weaker contextual predictability effects on earlier eye tracking measures, with smaller contextual predictability effects on gaze duration, refixation probability, and regression path duration being observed in older adults than young adults. The FRP data mimicked the eye-tracking data, with smaller contextual predictability effects on parafoveal processing and early negative deflections for older adults than the young adultswere observed. But equal contextual predictability N400 effects for older adults to their young adults counterparts were observed. Overall, we observed smaller contextual predictability effects for older adults than young adults on the measures of early word processing, suggesting an age-related decline in predictive processing in reading.