AGE-DIFFERENCES IN THE ALLOCATION OF STUDY TIME ACCOUNT FOR AGE-DIFFERENCES IN MEMORY PERFORMANCE

How aging affects the utilization of monitoring in the allocation of s tudy time was investigated by having adults learn paired associates du ring multiple study-test trials. During each trial, a subject paced th e presentation of individual items and later judged the likelihood of recalling each item on the upcoming test; after all items had been stu died and judged, recall occurred. For both age groups in Study 1, (1) people's judgments were highly accurate at predicting recall and (2) i ntraindividual correlations between judgments (or recall) on one trial , and study times on the next trial were negative, which suggests that subjects utilized monitoring to allocate study time. However, the mag nitude of these correlations was less for older than for younger adult s. Study 2 revealed that these differences were not due to age differe nces in forgetting. Results from both studies suggest that older adult s do not utilize on-line monitoring to allocate study to the same degr ee as younger adults do, and that these differences in allocation cont ribute to age deficits in recall.