Age differences in storage and retrieval: A multinomial modeling analysis

Abstract

An experiment is reported that examined the memory differences between 23 college students (21-41 years old) and 23 elderly adults (64-92 years old). Both groups memorized lists of categorically related words over a series of three study-test trials in a free-recall design. Consistent with prior research on aging effects, the elderly subjects performed more poorly on the number of words recalled, the number of categories recalled, the number of items recalled per category, and the amount of category clustering. To help determine if these differences were due to storage or retrieval processes, Batchelder and Riefer’s multinomial model for measuring storage and retrieval was used to analyze the data. The model suggested that age differences were primarily due to retrieval factors and not to storage factors. These results are consistent with a number of retrieval-based theories of aging effects. © 1991, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.