MEMORY FOR SPATIAL LAYOUTS IN RELATION TO AGE AND SCHEMA TYPICALITY

The hypothesis that prior experience, specifically a knowledge-based s chema for typical house layouts, can compensate for age declines in sp atial memory was evaluated in 4 experiments. Old and young adults expl ored and subsequently recalled house layouts presented 1 room at a tim e on a computer screen. The findings failed to support the compensatio n hypothesis in that schema-relevant layouts facilitated recall equiva lently for the 2 age groups. Violation of a typical house schema had a more negative effect on recall of the older group. Individual differe nces in spatial visualization ability explained much of the age differ ence in performance but not the effects of schema manipulations. It wa s concluded that there is age invariance in the facilitatory effects o f relevant prior knowledge on spatial memory but an age-related decrea se in the ability to inhibit irrelevant prior knowledge.