Selective interference with verbal and spatial working memory in young and older adults

Abstract

Young and older adults were administered digit and location memory span tasks with and without verbal and spatial secondary tasks. Age differences were greater in location span than in digit span; however, there were no age differences in either the magnitude or pattern of effects of secondary tasks. There were also no age differences in the effects of secondary tasks on a combined (digit and location) task. On the digit and location span tasks, both young and older adults showed only domain-specific interference: naming colors selectively interfered with memory for digits, leaving memory for locations unaffected; pointing to matching colors selectively interfered with memory for locations, leaving memory for digits unimpaired. The results of the present study suggest a greater age deficit in spatial working memory than in verbal working memory, but provide no evidence of an age deficit in susceptibility to interference by secondary tasks in either domain.