Organization by person category: Stability in the face of differences in attentional resources

Study 1 addressed the hypothesis that relative to younger adults, older adu lts exhibit reduced frequency for incidental recall of behavioral informati on concerning other people in an impression formation paradigm but do not e xhibit any decline in person-based organization in their recall. Findings w ere as expected and the age difference in recall frequency was attributable to the reduced attentional resources of older participants. Study 2 was an experimental analogue of Study 1, in which younger adults completed the im pression formation task either under concurrent load or under no load condi tions. Load was shown to reduce recall frequency but not the level of perso n-based organization in incidental recall. Findings support the view that p erson-based organization is automatic in that it requires little, ii any, a ttentional resources.