INFLUENCES OF AGE AND PERCEIVED ACTIVITY DIFFICULTY ON ACTIVITY RECALL

After they performed each of a series of activities, older and younger adults were asked to rate the difficulty of the activity. Recall of t he activities was later tested. Older adults tended to remember those activities they perceived to be less difficult, whereas younger adults tended to remember those activities they perceived to be more difficu lt. Thus, when more cognitive effort was required to perform an activi ty, older adults tended to have difficulty later remembering the activ ity Difficult activities are hypothesized to tax limited processing re sources and induce anxiety in older adults, preventing successful enco ding.