ABSTRACT
This chapter presents research concerned with relations between literacy level and cognitive function among ethnically diverse elders. We show evidence that literacy has a profound effect on neuropsychological measures across verbal and nonverbal domains, and that this effect is independent of other demographic and experiential factors such as age, years of education, sex, ethnicity, and language use. Differences in organization of visuospatial information, lack of previous exposure to stimuli, and difficulties with interpretation of the logical functions of language are possible factors that affect test performance of elders with low levels of literacy. Furthermore, it appears that reading level is a sensitive predictor of baseline cognitive test performance, and also that low literacy skills are associated with more rapid memory decline and higher risk of development of dementia.
