title: Age effects on analogy-based memory for text.
abstract: We examined age influences on analogy-based learning, in particular, analogy-based text memory. Adults (20-72 years) read pairs of passages describing analogous topics. We manipulated encoding complexity for the first passage and superficial topic similarity between passages, and assessed second-passage memory. Across all age groups, memory was better in the superficially similar topic condition only when encoding complexity had been simple. More critically, performance was better for similar topics only for the youngest adults. Younger adults performed worse than older adults in the dissimilar condition. Thus, only older adults identified and used the parallels between passages spontaneously.
authors.affiliation: Section on Socio-Environmental Studies, National Institute of Mental Health, 7550 Wisconsin Avenue, MSC 9005, Bethesda, MD 20892-9005, USA.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Caplan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schooler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D007858:Learning; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading