Changes in Adults' Prose Recall: Aging or Cognitive Demands?

When memory performance of old and young is tested, young participants are almost always students, whereas older adults are rarely enrolled in school. Thus, the two groups differ not only in age but also in current demands to remember. In order to assess the contributions of each group, older adults...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 1987-07, Vol.23 (4), p.521-525
Main Authors: Ratner, Hilary Horn, Schell, David A, Crimmins, Anne, Mittelman, David, Baldinelli, Laurie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Biological and medical sciences
Conditioning
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Learning. Memory
Memory
Practice
Prose
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Recall (Learning)
School Enrollment
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Summary:When memory performance of old and young is tested, young participants are almost always students, whereas older adults are rarely enrolled in school. Thus, the two groups differ not only in age but also in current demands to remember. In order to assess the contributions of each group, older adults' text recall and study strategies were compared with those of two groups of young adults. One group was enrolled in college classes, and the other group was not. Verbal ability was equivalent for the two groups. The college students outperformed both out-of-school groups; the out-of-school groups performed similarly to one another. These findings suggest that memory differences between old and young may result as much from cultural factors as from the inevitable consequences of biological deterioration.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/0012-1649.23.4.521