Do People Comprehend Legal Language in Wills?
Do People Comprehend Legal Language in Wills?
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DOI：
10.1002/acp.2819
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发表时间：
2012-07-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Gibson, Sheri C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Greene, Edith;Fogler, Kethera;Gibson, Sheri C.
这项研究评估了外行人理解大多数人阅读并签署的文件的能力：遗嘱和遗嘱。我们重点关注遗嘱中经常包含的概念，研究是否可以通过心理语言学修正来增强理解力，并评估理解力与年龄的关系。年龄在 32 岁至 89 岁之间的参与者以以下方式阅读遗嘱相关概念：(i) 传统格式，(ii) 为提高可读性而修订的版本，或 (iii) 除了这些更改之外，我们还解释了过时的和法律术语的版本。结果表明，增加可读性和解释术语可以增强参与者将与意志相关的概念应用于新事实模式并解释其推理的能力。我们发现，理解能力没有与年龄相关的影响，这与有据可查的研究结果一致，即老年人保留了文本理解情境水平的处理能力。我们讨论这些发现的含义并提出进一步研究的想法。版权所有 (C) 2012 约翰·威利父子有限公司
This study assessed the ability of laypeople to understand a document that most have read and signed: a last will and testament. We focused on concepts that are frequently included in wills, examined whether understanding can be enhanced by psycholinguistic revisions, and assessed comprehension as a function of age. Participants ages 32 to 89 years read will-related concepts in (i) their traditional format, (ii) a version revised to increase readability, or (iii) a version in which, in addition to those changes, we explained archaic and legal terms. Results showed that increasing the readability and explaining terms enhanced participants' abilities to apply will-related concepts to novel fact patterns and to explain their reasoning. We found no age-related effects on comprehension, consistent with well-documented findings that processing at the situation level of text comprehension is preserved in older adults. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest ideas for further research. Copyright (C) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.