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Two experiments were conducted to examine evidence for the automatic processing of information about presentation modality in older adults. Young (mean age = 22 years) and older adults (mean age = 69 years) were asked to learn a mixedmodality (auditory and visual) list of nouns, then to recall the target words, and finally to identify the presentation modality of each word on a recognition list. Half of the participants in each study were told in advance to also remember modality information. The experiments differed in the number of judgments that had to be made about each word in the recognition list. Two of Hasher and Zacks' (1979) criteria for automatic processing (no effect of intentionality and minimal interference with other processes occurring at the same time) were satisfied. The minimal developmental change criterion, however, was not. Although the performance of both age groups was above chance, some decrement in modality memory occurred in the older adults. The results both support the notion of an automatic encoding process for modality information and raise questions about the adequacy of the age-invanance criterion.

A mixed-modality (visual and auditory) continuous recognition task, followed immediately by a final recognition test, was administered to young (18-23 years), mid-life (38-50 years), and older (60-74 years) women. Subjects gave recognition responses for both the words and their presentation modality. Although older adults remembered less information about input mode than did the two younger groups, the age decrement was not the result of faster forgetting of such information by the elderly. When a ceiling effect at the initial lag was taken into account, forgetting rates for both words and input mode were comparable across the adult life span.

The association between age/family stage, career role, and personality traits was studied using a multivariate statistical approach. Young adult, midlife, and older women from four role groups-homemaker, married career, single career, and student-were compared on a number of personality measures including achievement motivation, affiliation, autonomy, cultural sex role characteristics, self esteem, and adjustment.While some of the expected group differences did not appear, some significant age and role differences were found. Older women showed less achievement motivation and had a greater need for affiliation than young adult and midlife women. Career women had a more internalized locus of control than homemakers and students. When age and role were considered together, the age-role groups were differentiated on autonomy, femininity, and adjustment. There were no differences between either age or role groups on measures of self-esteem, well-being, socialization, or other personality variables.

Self-descriptions on sex role characteristics and related personality traits including achievement and affiliation were compared in four age groups of women: eighteen to twenty-two, twenty-nine to thirty-nine, forty to fifty-five, and sixty to seventy-five year-olds. In general, the two younger groups emerged as least like the traditional feminine sex role stereotype. In comparison to the older women, they were more willing to ascribe masculine sex role characteristics to themselves and rated themselves as less responsible, self-controlled, and affiliative. Conversely, the women over sixty and homemakers in their forties and fifties adhered most strongly to the conventional feminine traits. These differences are explained in terms of the recent changes in societal attitudes toward sex roles. There is also some evidence that significant life roles are related to self-descriptions on these personality dimensions.

Previous research on women's adult personality development has, for the most part, employed either age or career status as the independent variable. This study makes an exploratory attempt at marrying these two variables by comparing women in two mid-life age groups (29 to 39 and 40 to 55) and four role groups (homemaker, married/career, single/career, and reentry student) on a number of personality dimensions including self-esteem, locus of control, achievement and affiliation needs, and indices of psychological adjustment. Multivariate analyses of the data revealed that these women could be differentiated by role status on several measures, including locus of control, affiliation, and social maturity, but were not significantly different by age on any of the assessed dimensions.The authors wish to thank John Miller for all his help with the statistical analysis of the data.Requests for reprints should be sent to Carol J. Erdwins,

Previous research that focused on self-esteem in adult women has yielded a variety of contradictory results, with some studias that report more positive self-concepts in the middle-aged in comparison to older and younger women and others that report the o osite. Similar conflicting findings have been presented for women over 60. !&s study com ared women in four age groups: 18 to 22,29 t o 39,40 t o 55, and 60 to 75 on tfe Tennessee Self Concept Scale, which yields self-esteem score9 on different life aspects such t w family relations, morality, and physical self as well as a general self-esteem measure. The age groups did not differ significantly in overall level of self-esteem, but they could be discriminated on the more specific aspects of self-concept; the 40-to 55-year-olds reported more positive feelings about themselves in their family relations and morality than did the 18 to 22 year olds. Women over 60, compared to the other age groups, showed more defensiveness and also gave responses more similar to a diagnosed psychotic group.'The authors wish to thank Nancv Vernon, Lynne O'Brien, and Kathy Smith for their essistance with data collection and John Miller for his help with the statistical analysis.*Reprint requests should be.sent to Carol J. Erdwins,

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