LEARNING WITH NOTES - MEMORY AND META-MEM ORY IN THE MIDDLE-AGED AND THE ELDERLY

Female and male subjects were divided into two groups, one group 30-45 years of age, the other 65-80 years, and were presented with sentence s describing intended activities. In one condition, the subjects had t o write notes on half of the sentences, while in another condition the y received notes prepared by the experimenter; in a control group, no notes were available. The subjects were tested for free recall of sent ences and for their judgment on the availability of notes. Notes facil itated the free recall of sentences, especially if the subjects had ge nerated the notes themselves. However, the subjects remembered self-ge nerated notes and notes prepared by the experimenter equally well. You nger persons retained both sentences and notes better than the elderly ; as far as the retention of sentences was concerned, the age differen ces in the retention of facultative arguments were more pronounced tha n for predicates and their obligatory arguments. The recall of sentenc es is interpreted as a function of memory and the recollection of note s as a function of metamemory. Based on these concepts of memory and m etamemory, the problem of compensating for memory deficits is discusse d.