Memory for news in young and old adults.
Memory for news stories was studied in 48 young and 48 old adults (20-40 and 60-80 years of age, respectively). Three stories selected from actual news programs were presented in print, audio, and TV formats for study. Young adults recalled a higher proportion of news content than old adults and performed better on source recognition tests. Presentation of the information in a TV format led to better performance than in an audio format for both young and old adults. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that approximately 86% of the age-related variance in news recall was mediated by measures of sensory acuity and processing speed, and commonality analysis revealed that 75% of the age-related variance was mediated jointly by acuity and speed. Findings support common-cause and generalized slowing views of memory impairment in old age.
Frieske
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Department of Psychology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green 42101, USA. david.frieske@wku.edu
Park
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013690:Television