Abstract
The ability to selectively remember important information is a critical function of memory. Although previous research has suggested that older adults are impaired in a variety of episodic memory tasks, recent work has demonstrated that older adults can selectively remember high-value information. In the present research, we examined how younger and older adults selectively remembered words with various assigned numeric point values, to see whether younger adults could remember more specific value information than could older adults. Both groups were equally good at recalling point values when recalling the range of high-value words, but younger adults outperformed older adults when recalling specific values. Although older adults were more likely to recognize negative value words, both groups exhibited control by not recalling negative value information. The findings suggest that although both groups retain high-value information, older adults rely more on gist-based encoding and retrieval operations, whereas younger adults are able to remember specific numeric value information.
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Portions of this research were presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, and the 14th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, Montréal. This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant to F.I.M.C. and by an NSERC postgraduate fellowship to A.D.C., as well as by financial support from the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation.
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Castel, A.D., Farb, N.A.S. & Craik, F.I.M. Memory for general and specific value information in younger and older adults: Measuring the limits of strategic control. Memory & Cognition 35, 689–700 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193307
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193307