IMPLICIT RETRIEVAL-PROCESSES IN CUED-RECALL - IMPLICATIONS FOR AGING EFFECTS IN MEMORY

Aging produces deficits in what has come to be called explicit dr dire ct memory, in which subjects must consciously retrieve information fro m long-term memory. In contrast, many studies have shown that when imp licit or indirect memory is tested, old and young subjects perform equ ivalently. The present study manipulated orienting instructions (struc tural vs. semantic) for indirect (stem completion) and direct (cued re call) memory tasks for both young and old subjects. Contrary to previo us research, older subjects produced equivalent performance to young s ubjects on the direct test as well as on the indirect test, and perfor mance of both groups was worse in the direct than indirect test. In ad dition, semantic orienting activity at study led to greater learning o n the indirect test than structural orienting for both groups, althoug h the levels of processing effect was greater for the direct test. We attribute the unexpected lack of age difference on the direct test to its difficulty, which led subjects to adopt an implicit (generate + re cognize) rather than an explicit retrieval strategy during the cued re call task. Because the elderly are not impaired with regard to either implicit retrieval or recognition, this strategy produced equivalent p erformance in the two groups.