Memory Ability & Age

There is a substantial body of research on age differences in learning and memory. Gilbert (1941) found a decline in performance with age on a variety of learning and memory tasks. This decline was most pronounced in paired-associate learning tasks (Gilbert, 1941). Such findings were originally taken as strong evidence that the effectiveness of the associative machinery of learning declines with age.

However objections were raised to some of the procedures employed is such tasks. Insufficient time, lack of motivation, and overarousal were said to bias results in favor of younger participants (Canestrari, 1968; Eisdorfer, 1965). Yet, empirical studies have continued to confirm age as an important influence on memory, especially in laborato

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jects to listen to the researcher read digits from a piece of paper and then say them backwards. During the third memory task--Free Recall--subjects were given a pencil and a piece of paper that contained a space for the subject's name and numbered blank lines. Subjects were instructed to listen to a list of 20 words. After the researcher read all the words, subjects were asked to write down all the words they could remember. After no longer than four minutes, the recall paper was collected from the subject. The fourth task was then administered--Word List Recognition--in which subjects were given a piece of paper with 20 rows of four words where one word in each row was from the word list heard previously. Subjects were asked to circle the word in each row that was heard earlier. In the fifth and final task--Free Recall of Prose--subjects were given a copy of a short story which they were instructed to follow as the researcher read the story aloud. After the reading, subjects were given a lined sheet of paper and a pencil and were asked to write down everything they could remember about the story. Procedures Each student in the class interviewed two subjects, one in each age category. The student recorded the subject's
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Approximate Word count = 1382
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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