In some tasks, differences are oberved, while in others, the samples appear to be equivalent. When confronted with such a pattern of results, questions of interpretation often arise. The study of age differences in cognition has long been plagued by similar difficulties, including cohort effects, matching of samples, and equating processing demands. In comparing samples which are cross-national as well as lifespan samples, these difficulties can become compounded. Through careful sampling, the use of multiple measures, and understanding the processing demands of each task, it may be possible to resolve some of these interpretive questions.
Inhibition also plays an important role in paragraph reading.
The key to successful reading is to allow relevant information to enter working memory and to keep irrelevant information out of working memory. Moreover, because the nature of on-line processing ensures that information once relevant will sometimes become irrelevant as processing proceeds, the reader must work to remove currently activated information from working memory in a routine, quick, and efficient manner. In recent study, the same materials and task were used for elderly subjects in reading Chinese paragraphs. The results suggested that the average level of elderly subjects in the employment of inhibition mechanism was at least not worse than that of young subjects with low working memory capacity.