MEMORY FOR PICTORIAL INFORMATION AND THE PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT

This research compared the performance of younger (mean age = 20.7 yea rs) and older (mean age = 68.3 years) adults on a memory task that inv olved pictures, words, and pictures-plus-words as stimuli. The results , consistent with previous research, indicated an equivalent picture s uperiority effect for both young and old adults when pictures were com pared to words. More specifically, although recall scores were signifi cantly higher for younger adults compared to older adults, the superio r recall scores for pictures versus words did not differ between the a ge groups. However, the performance of older adults declined markedly, compared to the younger adults, in the picture-plus-word condition. T hese findings are interpreted as providing support for a divided atten tion model, which involves effortful processing of both visual and ver bal aspects of stimuli. This situation of divided attention appears to put older adults at a relative disadvantage compared to young adults.