Memory for News in Young and Old Adults

Memory for news stories was studied in 48 young and 48 old adults (20-40 and 60-80 years of age, respectively). Three stories selected from actual news programs were presented in print, audio, and TV formats for study. Young adults recalled a higher proportion of news content than old adults and per...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology and aging 1999-03, Vol.14 (1), p.90-98
Main Authors: Frieske, David A, Park, Denise C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult. Elderly
Age Differences
Aged
Aging
Aging - physiology
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Processing Speed
Cross-Sectional Studies
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Individuality
Male
Mass Media
Memory
Memory - physiology
Memory Disorders
Mental Recall - physiology
News
News Media
Newspapers as Topic
Older people
Perception
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Reading
Semantics
Speech Perception
Stories
Television
Verbal Memory
Visual Memory
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Memory for news stories was studied in 48 young and 48 old adults (20-40 and 60-80 years of age, respectively). Three stories selected from actual news programs were presented in print, audio, and TV formats for study. Young adults recalled a higher proportion of news content than old adults and performed better on source recognition tests. Presentation of the information in a TV format led to better performance than in an audio format for both young and old adults. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that approximately 86% of the age-related variance in news recall was mediated by measures of sensory acuity and processing speed, and commonality analysis revealed that 75% of the age-related variance was mediated jointly by acuity and speed. Findings support common-cause and generalized slowing views of memory impairment in old age.
ISSN:0882-7974
1939-1498
DOI:10.1037/0882-7974.14.1.90