MEMORY AGING AS A GENERAL PHENOMENON - EPISODIC RECALL OF OLDER ADULTS IS A FUNCTION OF EPISODIC RECALL OF YOUNG-ADULTS

The focus of this study was on the relationship between young and olde r adults' performance on tasks of deliberate recall from episodic memo ry. A meta-analysis on 91 relevant studies (comprising a total of 154 conditions) was conducted. It was found that 83% of the variance in ol der adults recall probability was accounted for by a quadratic functio n using young adults' recall probabilities as predictors. No significa nt interaction with age of older adults was found. Interaction with ta sk type was, however, significant, resulting in separate functions for list recall, prose recall, and paired-associate recall. The results p oint at the importance of the main effect of age in studies on memory aging.