Aging and Serial List Picture Memory

Abstract

List memory of 6 young and 6 older human adults was tested with lists of four visual items (black and white patterns and colored abstract paintings). We investigated the effects of varying the length of the recognition interval on the serial-position function for picture recognition in the two age groups. Increases in the retention interval showed a consistent modification of the shape of the serial-position function from a monotonically increasing function at the shortest interval to a monotonically decreasing function at the longest interval. The time course of these changes was faster for older adults than for young adults. Age differences in the length of the interval required for a shift in the serial-position functions from recency to primacy effects were strikingly similar to those previously found between young people and nonhuman species.