The purpose of the present research was to explore the role of stereotype threat as a mediator of older people's memory performance under different instructional sets. In three studies, younger and older participants completed a memory test that was either framed as a memorization or as an impression formation task. Across these studies, memory performance was greater for younger than for older adults and was higher in the impression formation than memorization condition, but was not different for older adults in the two instruction conditions. These results also showed that age differences in memory performance were mediated by participants' feelings of stereotype threat, such that age was positively related to stereotype threat and stereotype threat was negatively related to memory performance. These data demonstrate that concerns about being negatively stereotyped influence age differences in memory performance, and that the effects of these feelings on performance are not easily reduced by reframing the task instructions.

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The relationship between delayed auditory feedback and speech rate, speech error rate, and delay detectability was examined as a function of delay duration. Thirty adult participants read paragraphs while listening to delayed feedback at 10 logarithmically spaced delay durations between 0 and 180 ms. Significant main effects of delay duration was found for speech rate as well as number of disfluencies. In addition, there was a significant effect of delay duration on the detectability of the delay as well as on reaction times even for very short delays (i.e., 16 ms). For reasons that are currently unknown, delays at 45 ms were significantly more difficult to detect than delays of either 32 or 64 ms. This was evident for both reaction-time data as well as signal-detection data. There was a linear, downward trend in speech rate for delays of 32 ms and longer, with a small deviation at 45 ms. Disfluencies were infrequent but there were significant increases in stuttering-like disruptions at longer delays (i.e., 128–180 ms). [Work supported by SSHRC.]