THE ROLES OF PERCEIVED AND ACTUAL CONTROL IN MEMORY FOR SPOKEN LANGUAGE

The effects of personal control on memory for spoken language were inv estigated by allowing younger and older adults to take actual control of the input condition of recorded narratives under one condition and requiring them to listen without interruption in another. Subjects wer e also administered the ADEPT-PIC, a measure of control beliefs in int ellectual contexts, as well as a working memory span task measuring th e ability to hold and manipulate linguistic information simultaneously in memory. Older adults were less likely than younger adults to take actual control of the speech input, although age differences in percei ved control were minimal, suggesting that actual and perceived control are relatively independent influences in the determination of age dif ferences in cognitive performance. These constructs were, nevertheless , interrelated: perceived control was a stronger predictor of prose me mory when no actual control was available. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of working memory for mediating the relati onship between perceived control and discourse processing. Implication s for older adults in instructional contexts are examined.