AGE-RELATED AND INTELLIGENCE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN IMPLICIT MEMORY -EFFECTS OF GENERATION ON A WORD-FRAGMENT COMPLETION TEST

In two experiments, subjects either read a bracketed word in a sentenc e or generated a word in response to its definition. A word-fragment c ompletion test was then carried out. In Experiment 1, children's primi ng under the generate condition was substantial, as compared with base line performance, but was significantly lower than that under the read condition, whereas there was no difference in adults' priming between these two conditions. Furthermore, prior generation induced an age-re lated increase in priming despite no age difference under the read con dition. In Experiment 2, mentally retarded persons exhibited a profile similar to that of children. These results suggest that there are two different components in implicit memory, one that shows no developmen tal difference and heavily relies on perceptual processing and the oth er that shows an age-related or intelligence-related increase and heav ily relies on conceptual processing. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.