Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Effects of division of attention during encoding and retrieval on age differences in episodic memory

1997; Routledge; Volume: 23; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03610739708254029

1096-4657

Lars Nyberg, Lars‐Göran Nilsson, Ulrich Olofsson, Lars Bäckman,

Child and Animal Learning Development

Abstract This study examined the effects of dual task requirements on age differences in free recall performance. One thousand adults ranging in age between 35 and 80 years performed a word recall task alone and concurrently with a card-sorting task (at encoding, retrieval, or both). Age differences in memory performance were substantial under single task conditions, but after correcting memory performance under dual task conditions for differences in single task performance, age did not predict performance. These results do not support the hypothesis that reduced attentional capacity in old age is underlying age differences in episodic memory.