| Abstract: | ![]()
Presented 2 different stimulus lists to 16 middle-aged (30-60 yrs old) and elderly (70-90 yrs old) Ss for free recall. One list was composed of word pairs that share complementary relationships (e.g., music and piano), and the other list was composed of pairs that share similarity relationships (e.g., king and ruler). An analysis of variance performed on the clustering scores indicated that age, list, and the Age * List interaction were significant sources of variance. The only condition in which a significant amount of clustering was obtained was that in which the middle-aged Ss were given the similarity list. There were no differences in the amount of clustering exhibited by the middle-aged when given the complementary list or the elderly when given either the complementary or the similarity list. Thus, it appears that there is a decline in the elderly in the organization of incoming information and that this decline in organization may be, at least in part, responsible for the memory decrement observed in the elderly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
