Younger and older adults collaborating on retelling everyday stories

Abstract

Although much persuasive evidence pertaining to cognitive decline with aging has accumulated, some recent research has been directed at examining the conditions under which maintenance of cognitive competence into late life may he observed. Given that older adults perform many everyday cognitive activities in interactive situations, it is possible that collaboration may be a means of compensating for individual-level cognitive decline. In 2 experiments, we examined collaborative performance for a typical episodic memory task, retelling a complex story. In the first experiment, we compared younger and older individuals to unacquainted dyads and tetrads, homogeneous with respect to age and sex. Results indicated that both age groups benefited equally from the presence of collaborators and that the groups produced qualitatively coherent retold stories. In the second experiment, we compared the collaborative performance of the younger and older married couples. Their recall performance was equivalent and superior to that of the older dyads and tetrads of the first experiment. Examination of a metacognitive indicator (accuracy of predictions and postdictions) revealed that the groups were adept at monitoring their own performance. Implications for theories of cognitive aging and for promotion of continued cognitive competence in late life are discussed.