title: Are older adults more social than younger adults? Social importance increases older adults' prospective memory performance.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of social importance on prospective remembering in younger and older adults as a possible factor contributing to the age-prospective memory paradox. Using a between-subjects design, 40 younger and 40 older adults worked on a time-based prospective memory task in which social importance was varied. Overall, younger adults outperformed older adults in the prospective memory task. Importantly, in contrast to younger adults, older adults' prospective memory performance was significantly better in the social importance condition than in the standard condition. This interaction was not reflected in participants' time-monitoring behaviour. Findings are discussed in the context of recent prospective memory theories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany. altgassen@psychologie.tu-dresden.de
authors.forename: Mareike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Altgassen
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kliegel
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brandimonte
authors.forename: Pina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Filippello
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012919:Social Behavior; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult