title: Age differences in item manipulation span: the case of letter-number sequencing.
abstract: The authors report 2 experiments in which they examined age differences in working memory tasks involving complex item manipulation (i.e., letter-number sequencing). In Experiment 1, age differences on tasks involving item manipulation were not greater than age differences on tasks requiring recall of items in the order in which they appeared, suggesting that older adults do not have difficulty with item manipulation per se. In Experiment 2, slower presentation rates increased age differences in item manipulation spans, although age differences at the fastest rate may be attributed to differences in strategy use. In both experiments, age differences were largest when participants were most likely to be remembering familiar sequences, suggesting that older adults may have difficulties dampening the representations of such sequences once they are activated.
authors: Department of Psychology, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA. ljemery@ncsu.edu
authors: Lisa
authors: L
authors: Emery
authors: Joel
authors: J
authors: Myerson
authors: Sandra
authors: S
authors: Hale
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011930:Reaction Time