Mm. Schugens et al., DIFFERENTIAL-EFFECTS OF AGING ON EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT MEMORY, Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition, 4(1), 1997, pp. 33-44
In the present study, five consecutive age groups ranging from the 20s
to the 60s were compared on a range of explicit and implicit memory t
ests which were modelled on the clinical tasks used to assess amnesia.
With respect to explicit memory, the ability to recall verbal or visu
al material was seen to decline steadily with increasing age at immedi
ate and delayed testing; there were, however, no consistent age differ
ences regarding performance on recognition tasks. Perceptual skill acq
uisition within the context of a mirror reading task was unaffected by
age, while word stem completion priming tended to decline across the
age groups. Factor analysis revealed three factors: verbal explicit me
mory, visual memory (comprising visual recall and stem completion prim
ing), and skill acquisition. The present findings indicate dissociable
effects of normal aging on explicit and implicit memory, and thereby
some degree of qualitative resemblance to human amnesia.