Adults' Text Recall: An Examination of the Age-Deficit Hypothesis

Abstract

One-hundred and eight young and middle-aged adults studied two texts. The adults' vocabulary scores and their reported use of organizational strategies were correlated positively with their total recall of text information; their chronological ages, however, were correlated negatively with their recall. The relative contribution that each of these variables made to recall was assessed by means of a hierarchical regression analysis. Vocabulary and age were found to be particularly important variables. Vocabulary represented a text-learning resource that increased with age; it offset the age-related deficit in recall, but only in part. The findings provide support for the existence of a small, but significant, age-related deficit in text recall.