Prior knowledge involved in inferencing information from warnings for younger and older adults

Abstract

Warning comprehension is critical to safely use medications and products with health-related consequences, especially for older adults who often use multiple medications. The ability to infer from short texts influences the warning comprehension process and in turn is influenced by prior knowledge. Mixed evidence suggests that age may moderate inferencing ability. This study combined quantitative and qualitative measures to explore the role of prior knowledge in inferencing and age-related differences in the nature of the information used. Twenty younger (18–28) and 20 older (65–75) adults evaluated whether 16 one-sentence statements were true (consistent) or false (inconsistent) in relation to two-sentence text passages that were real (i.e. taken from products such as cleaners and OTC medications) or their reverse. Statements contained information explicitly stated or implied in the text passage. Accuracy was generally high, higher for real text passages (than reversed) and explicit statements (than implicit). Older adults did less well than younger adults for reversed text passages. Qualitative analyses suggest that given contradictory information, older adults rely on prior knowledge more than younger adults, which may account for age-related differences in their conclusions. Thus, older adults may be more likely to misinterpret health-related communications if the information conflicts with their prior knowledge.