W. Koutstaal et al., POSTEVENT REVIEW IN OLDER AND YOUNGER ADULTS - IMPROVING MEMORY ACCESSIBILITY OF COMPLEX EVERYDAY EVENTS, Psychology and aging, 13(2), 1998, pp. 277-296
Recalling an event at 1 time often increases the likelihood that it wi
ll be remembered at a still later time. The authors examined the degre
e to which older and younger adults' memory for everyday events that t
hey watched on a videotape was improved by later seeing photographs or
reading brief verbal descriptions of those events. Both older and you
nger adults recalled more events, in greater detail, with than without
review. Verbal descriptions enhanced later recall to the same degree
as reviewing photographs. Younger adults generally gained more from re
view than older adults on measures of the absolute number of details r
ecalled and when facilitation was assessed relative to a no-review con
trol condition, but not when memory for reviewed events was expressed
as a proportion of each individual's total recall. Post-event review h
as clear potential practical benefits for improving memory of older ad
ults.