title: Adult age differences in memory for distinctive information: evidence from the bizarreness effect.
abstract: Two experiments examined age-related differences in memory for bizarre and common pictures. In Experiment 1, a facilitative effect of bizarreness was obtained for young adults and one of the older groups, but not for the oldest group (over age 70). However, the bizarreness effect was found for even the oldest group when predominantly common lists were used in Experiment 2. It is concluded that older adults suffer from deficits in distinctive processing, but those deficits can be reduced by providing a more uniformly common context in which differences can be processed.
authors.affiliation: Université Paris Descartes, 92774 Boulogne-Billancourt, France. serge.nicolas@parisdescartes.fr
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nicolas
authors.forename: James B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Worthen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult