The Effects of Semantic Processing on Memory of Subjects Differing in Age

Abstract

This study contrasted the recall and recognition performance of young (19-year-old) and old (74-year-old) adults following intentional and incidental learning. The incidental learning condition involved the reading of a story. The large age deficit found in intentional recall was virtually eliminated in incidental recognition. Reading evidently induces a sufficient depth of processing to overcome memory loss.

Depth of Processing and Text Recall in Adulthood

“…Thus, it was hypothesized that experimentally inducing semantic processing would serve to attenuate age-related recall differences. For both list materials (Mason, 1979;Zelinski, Walsh, & Thompson, 1978) and text materials (Cerella, Paulshock, & Poon, 1982;Simon, Dixon, Nowak, & Hultsch, 1982), the results are inconsistent. Simon et al (1982) found that young and old adults recalled an equivalent amount of text material under a shallow processing condition, and an equivalent but significantly higher amount under an intentional condition.…”