Age differences in human memory.

Abstract

Three experiments employed a total of 7 5-yr-olds and 9 adults (graduate students and university staff). In Exps I and II 5-yr-olds recalled fewer items than adults in memory-span tasks involving both familiar and unfamiliar faces. This occurred even though the use of rehearsal and recoding strategies was minimized for adults. This residual age difference may be partially accounted for by 2 further processing limitations in children. The 5-yr-olds needed more time than adults to name and to encode a face. To test whether limitations in children's initial recognition and stimulus-identification processes could account for recall performance, Exp III reduced adults' exposure duration in the memory-span task. Results show a drastic reduction in the age difference. Other factors contributing to remaining age differences included adults' adaptability in using various alternative encoding and retrieval strategies which elevated their recall performance. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all rights reserved)(unassigned)