THE EFFECT OF IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT MOTIVATION ON RECALL AMONG OLD AND YOUNG-ADULTS

Seventy-six elderly subjects aged sixty-five to eighty-seven and seven ty-seven young adults aged twenty-five to forty were compared on impli cit and explicit motive levels and on recall of introductions and work ing memory. Significantly fewer of the elderly than the young particip ants scored high in the implicit motives, n Affiliation and n Power, c onfirming results from U.S. national surveys. The surveys also demonst rated a significant decline with age in high levels of n Achievement, a decline not found here. The elderly participants showed major recall deficits on both tasks, but all three of the implicit motives studied were shown to enhance recall for the elderly, but not for the young a dults. Eight elderly women scoring high on at least two of the three m otives showed no recall deficits compared to the young women on two me mory tasks. In old age implicit motive deficits contribute to poor mem ory but explicit commitments to have a good memory had no effect on re call.