Memory for pictures: does an age-related decline exist?

In the present experiments, the effects of varying detail on memory were examined. In Experiment 1, pictorial embellishment was varied by presenting old and young adults with normal photographs, high-contrast photographs, or line drawings, and testing their memory immediately and 4 weeks later. All of the subjects did best with the most elaborate pictures (normal photographs), and old subjects remembered as well as young at the immediate but not at the delayed interval. In Experiment 2, detail was varied by adding background to line drawings of a central object. Subjects of both ages profited from enhanced background detail, and there were no differences in memory as a function of age. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2, except that subjects studied the pictures under divided attention conditions. Again, subjects of both age recognized elaborate pictures best, and no significant age differences emerged. The studies suggest that old and young adults profit from visual embellishment and that memory for meaningful pictures remains relatively intact with age.

Memory for two types of spatial location: effects of instructions, age, and format.

Three experiments, with old persons (59-80 years) and college students (17-30 years) in Experiments 1 and 2 and with college students (17-24 years) in Experiment 3, investigated the differences between two types of spatial location memory: memory for the location of individual items in an array and memory for occupied, as opposed to unoccupied, locations in an array. Young persons performed better than old persons on both measures of location memory. However, an effect of instructions (intentional vs. incidental for spatial location) was consistently obtained for memory for occupied, as opposed to unoccupied, locations, whereas no effect of instructions was obtained for memory for individual item locations. In addition, item location memory was superior for objects as opposed to matched words (Experiment 2), whereas occupied location memory was not affected by presentation format (Experiments 2 and 3). These differences indicate that spatial memory is a complex process whose properties are affected by variations in stimulus characteristics and task demands. It was concluded that the distinction of Hasher and Zacks (1979) between automatic and effortful processes is not adequate for understanding spatial memory. A recognition of the complex nature of spatial processing suggests a resolution of discrepancies in the literature based upon differences in stimulus characteristics, task demands, and the effectiveness of task-appropriate mnemonic strategies.

Recognition of letters in words and nonwords.

Two visual search experiments were conducted to clarify the processes underlying the "word superiority" effect. Ss in both experiments (18 college students in Experiment 1; 18 college students and 18 older adults in Experiment 2) searched six, 50-item stimulus lists for the letters "a" and "r". Each item consisted of a string of four letters forming either a word or a nonword anagram of that word. Items were printed in either uppercase letters, lowercase letters, or mixed-cased letters (e.g., wOrD), resulting in the six stimulus lists. Significant main effects were obtained in the two experiments. Search times were shorter for words than for nonwords, regardless of case. Thus, the word superiority effect was demonstrated even when the visual configuration of the word was disrupted. Search times were also shorter for uppercase and lowercase items (i.e., same-case items) than for mixed-case items, regardless of the word/nonword condition. In addition, older persons (Experiment 2) evidenced slower processing than college students in all stimulus conditions, and their processing was differentially slowed in conditions which prevented automatic (as opposed to effortful) processing. Results were interpreted in terms of automatic information processing.

Disabled vs nondisabled readers: perceptual vs higher-order processing of one vs three letters.

12 disabled and 12 nondisabled readers (mean age, 11 yr.) were compared on a letter-search task which separated perceptual processing from higher-order processing. Participants were presented a first stimulus (for 200 msec. to minimize eye movements) followed by a second stimulus immediately to estimate the amount of information initially perceived or after a 3000-msec. interval to examine information more permanently stored. Participants were required to decide whether any letter present in the first stimulus was also present in the second. Two processing loads (1 and 3 letters) were examined. Disabled readers showed more pronounced deficits when they were given very little time to process information or more information to process.

Semantic encoding in older adults as evidenced by release from proactive inhibition.

Wickens' Release from Proactive Inhibition paradigm was used to investigate semantic encoding in healthy older persons, nursing home residents, and college students. Significant PI Release effects, which did not interact with age, were obtained for taxonomic category and semantic differential dimensions. However, older persons, especially nursing home residents, displayed lower percentages of recall than college students, indicating that their semantic processing was less efficient. It was suggested that older and younger adults may differ not so much as their levels (or depth) of encoding as in their degree of elaboration within particular levels.

Equating the social desirability of Bem Sex-Role Inventory masculinity and femininity subscales.

Two experiments investigated the social desirability of Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) items. Mean social desirability of the masculinity subscale was significantly higher than that of the femininity subscale in both experiments. A revision of the BSRI femininity subscale was suggested which replaced three items of questionable social value with three more socially desirable items and virtually eliminated the social desirability difference between masculinity and femininity subscales.

Self-perceived age changes in sex role self concept.

A prospective/retrospective study of sex role self concept was conducted in order to explore the hypothesis that adult men and women experience a convergence of sex roles in later life. Young (age seventeen to twenty-nine), middle aged (age thirty to fifty-nine), and older (age sixty to eighty-five) adults (twenty-one male, forty-one female in each group) rated themselves on Bem Sex Role Inventory items, first describing themselves at age twenty, next at age forty-five, and finally at age seventy. Self-perceived age changes in sex role self concept reported by these three groups of adults produced strikingly similar patterns. In each case, both men and women evidenced high masculine self descriptions related to middle age (projected age forty-five) followed by decreases in masculinity in later life (projected age seventy). Only the projections of middle aged respondents displayed even marginally significant evidence in favor of sex role convergence.

Age-related slowing in memory search for three-dimensional objects.

Old (M = 68.9 years) and young (M = 21.3 years) adults were presented with a memory search task in which stimulus sets consisting of small statues were either categorically mixed or categorically distinct. Memory set size (two, three, or four statues) was varied across trial blocks as was target/distractor status of the sets. A significant linear effect of set size was obtained for both old and young adults in the categorically mixed condition. Search rates for old persons in this condition were slower than for young persons. Search rates of old and young persons did not differ, however, when stimulus sets were categorically distinct, and the set size effect was eliminated in this condition as both age groups evidenced essentially zero slope values over varying memory set sizes. Results were supportive of the complexity hypothesis of age-related slowing in that old persons' response times in the various experimental conditions were a monotonically increasing function of young persons' response times.

Sex role identity and self esteem in adulthood.

Sex role identity (Fem Sex Role Inventory) and self esteem (Texas Social Behavior Inventory) were examined in a cross sectional sample of 2069 Ohio State University students, employees, and alumni between the ages of seventeen and eighty-nine. Both men and women displayed peak masculinity scores in the middle years of adulthood, with no significant differences in femininity scores across the age range studied. Among both men and women, psychologically "androgynous" individuals displayed the highest levels of self esteem, followed by masculine sex-typed, feminine sex-typed, and "undifferentiated" individuals, in that order. Masculinity was a far better predictor of self esteem than was femininity.

Age-related slowing in mental rotation of three-dimensional objects.

Twenty-four old (M = 70.9 years) and 24 young (M = 21.7 years) adults performed a mental rotation task in which stimuli were pairs of three-dimensional objects (toy cowboy figures). Participants were presented with one pair of figures on each trial and were required to make a "yes/no" decision as to whether the figures were in identical ("yes") or mirror image ("no") poses. A significant interactive effect of age and rotation angle on response time suggested slower rates of mental rotation for old vs. young adults, as did significant age differences in mean slope and intercept values based on individual subjects' linear equations for response time over rotation angle. Findings were consistent with those of previous studies which have reported significant age-related slowing in mental rotation.

Older adults' memory for the color of pictures and words.

Young and older adults were presented line drawings or matched words for study that were colored either red, green, yellow, or blue. Half of the research participants were instructed to remember the item and its color (intentional condition), whereas the other half studied only the item (incidental condition). Participants indicated their recognition of items and the color they believed positively recognized items were, regardless of their initial encoding instructions. Data analyses yielded evidence for a decline in color memory in old compared with young adults, particularly with respect to pictures. The color of pictures was generally better remembered than the color of words, particularly in the incidental memory conditions. The discussion suggests the effort required to remember color varies as a function of the stimulus with which it is associated.

Perceptual elaboration and memory in older adults.

This experiment investigated the effects of perceptual elaboration on the memory performance of 15 older (M = 70.4 years) and 15 younger adults (M = 25.2 years). Participants were presented tachistoscopically with line drawings that varied in contour completeness. As predicted, both old and young persons' identification response times for those drawings increased with decreases in contour completeness, indicating increased elaborative processing (Kunen et al., 1979). Moreover, a moderate decrease in contour completeness was associated with increased recall of the drawings for both age groups, although older persons identified the drawings more slowly and recalled fewer drawings than did younger persons. These findings complement those of Park et al. (1986) and demonstrate that older persons engage in active cognitive elaboration of pictorial stimuli when those stimuli are presented in such a way as to encourage elaboration.

Spatial memory in older adults: effects of intentionality.

College students and elderly adults were presented with drawings for study that were placed on the left or right side of a photographic slide. Persons in the items-only condition studied only the target drawings, whereas persons in the items-position condition studied both the target drawing and its location to determine whether intentionality affected picture recognition or position recall. Half of the drawings were presented with an irrelevant adjacent drawing to assess the effect of presenting the target item relative to another drawing. The principal finding was that, although special memory was well above chance, the Hasher and Zack's criteria for automatic processing of this dimension were not met. Specifically, an age-related decline in spatial memory was observed, and intentionality to learn position affected item recognition and position recall. It was also found that older persons' memory for position was enhanced by the irrelevant drawings. Results are discussed primarily in terms of the Hasher and Zacks model of automatic processing and possible encoding strategies utilized by the elderly.

Picture associations among old and young adults.

Fifty college students (M age = 19.6 years) and 42 older adults (M age = 68.6 years) generated associations to drawings of common objects. Participants were given 90 s to generate as many associations as they could to each of 24 of the 48 drawings in the stimulus set. There was considerable agreement between the two age groups as to specific associations generated in response to individual drawings. However, older persons generated fewer associations per drawing than did younger persons, and there was some evidence that older persons were less consistent in their associations.

Memory for pictures, words, and spatial location in older adults: evidence for pictorial superiority.

In the present study the spatial location of picture and word stimuli was varied across four quadrants of photographic slides. Young and old people received either pictures or words to study and were told to remember either just the item or the item and its location. Recognition memory for items and memory for spatial location were tested. A pictorial superiority effect occurred for both old and young people's item recognition. Additionally, instructions to study position decreased item memory and facilitated position memory in both age groups. Spatial memory was markedly superior for pictures compared with matched words for old and young adults. The results are interpreted within the Hasher and Zacks framework of automatic processing. The implications of the data for designing mnemonic aids for elderly persons are considered.

Picture memory in older adults: effects of contextual detail at encoding and retrieval.

In the present study, contextual detail was manipulated in a stimulus set by reproducing cartoon pictures intact or with much of the background obliterated. Young and older adults were presented cartoon slides both with and without contextual detail for study. During recognition, presence or absence of background was crossed factorially with its presence or absence during encoding, and participants indicated whether they recognized the cartoon. Analysis of d' scores indicated that old and young adults evidenced encoding specificity effects of comparable magnitude. Additionally, young people recognized pictures with contextual detail better than pictures without detail, whereas the reverse appeared to be true for older individuals. The implications of these findings with respect to those of Craik and Simon are discussed.

Cue utilization and encoding specificity in picture recognition by older adults.

According to the encoding specificity principle, memory is best when encoding and retrieval conditions are compatible. Some researchers have suggested that older adults encode information in a general fashion and are less sensitive to the specific contextual aspects of a memory situation due to limited processing resources. We investigated the hypothesis that age interacts with encoding specificity. Young and old adults studied target pictures in the presence or absence of pictorial cues factorially varied at encoding and retrieval. If the older adults used the specific cuing information differently from the younger adults, age should have interacted with the encoding and retrieval variables. The results provided no evidence for such an interaction and indicated that both ages showed evidence of encoding specificity. To investigate the role of processing resources in encoding specificity, old and young adults also studied the pictures while simultaneously performing a digit-monitoring task. The divided-attention manipulation also did not interact with age, as both young and old adults showed encoding specificity effects of comparable magnitude in both control and divided-attention conditions.

Age differences in encoding specificity.

In two experiments (one under full attention, the other under divided attention), old and young adults were presented with a cued recall task in an encoding specificity paradigm. Targets and associated cues were either pictures or matched words, and there was either a strong or weak semantic relationship between targets and cues. Additionally, cues presented at recall were either the same as or different from those presented at encoding, resulting in four encoding cue--retrieval cue combinations: (a) strong encoding cue and (same) strong retrieval cue; (b) weak encoding cue and (same) weak retrieval cue; (c) weak encoding cue and (different) strong retrieval cue; (d) strong encoding cue and (different) weak retrieval cue. For the most part, the results revealed strong encoding specificity effects for both age groups, as both old and young participants recalled more when the same cues were presented at encoding and retrieval than when different cues were presented. However, when elderly participants received verbal cues under divided attention conditions, evidence for general encoding rather than encoding specificity occurred. Results are discussed in terms of both the encoding specificity principle as well as a more process-oriented interpretation.

Effects of contextual integration on recall of pictures by older adults.

This study investigated age-related differences in the ability to utilize integrative relationships between target and context as a memory support by directly manipulating the relationship between a target picture and context. We hypothesized that as the active integration required between target and cue increased, age differences would increase. Old and young adults were instructed to remember target pictures, each presented with a pictorial cue. The cue/target relationship was one of three types: categorically related (high integration condition), visually interacting (high integration condition), or unrelated and noninteracting (low integration condition). Cued recall of the targets was tested. The results indicated that the poorly integrated target-context relationship produced the largest age difference, supporting the integration hypothesis.