Conceptual processing of distractors by older but not younger adults.
Evidence from perceptually based implicit memory tasks demonstrates greater priming from distracting information among older compared with younger adults. We examined whether older adults also show greater conceptually based implicit priming from distracting information. We measured priming using a general-knowledge test that was preceded by an incidental-encoding task (a color-naming Stroop task in one experiment and a 1-back task involving pictures with irrelevant words superimposed in a second experiment). Younger adults showed no priming from the distracting information in either experiment, whereas older adults showed reliable priming in both experiments. Thus, unlike young adults, older adults process irrelevant information conceptually and then can use that information to boost their performance on a subsequent task.
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada tarek.amer@utoronto.ca hasher@psych.toronto.ca.
Tarek
T
Amer
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lynn
L
Hasher
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008606:Mental Processes; D008875:Middle Aged; D057190:Stroop Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
aging; cognitive ability; implicit memory