Processing speed and adult age differences in activity memory

Immediate and delayed recall of performed cognitive activities was examined in 136 adults aged 20 to 85. Hierarchical I egression analyses were used t o assess the association between perceptual speed and age differences in ac tivity memory. The age-related variance in delayed activity recall was redu ced by 52% by the statistical control of perceptual speed, and the age-rela ted variance in immediate activity recall was reduced by 91%. Thus, adult a ge differences in delayed and immediate activity memory were found to be as sociated with limitations in perceptual speed. The cognitive effort that is required to perform cognitive activities may tax the processing resources of older adults, prohibiting successful encoding of the activities.