Abstract
We examined whether memory for distinctive events is influenced by aging. To do so, we used a semantic isolation paradigm in which people show superior memory for a word when it is presented in a list of items from a different semantic category (e.g., the word table is presented in a list of all bird exemplars) as compared with when the same word (table) is presented in a list of unrelated words. Results showed that both younger and older adults demonstrated an isolation effect in memory, although older adults showed a numerically smaller isolation effect than did younger adults. Results suggest that in contrast with previous findings (Cimbalo & Brink, 1982), older adults can take advantage of this type of distinctiveness to aid memory performance.
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Geraci, L., McDaniel, M.A., Manzano, I. et al. The influence of age on memory for distinctive events. Memory & Cognition 37, 175–180 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.2.175
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.2.175