Age differences in the recall of actions and cognitive activities: the effects of presentation rate and object cues.

In studies of activity memory, age differences have been found in the recall of cognitive activities (sustained mental activities that subjects solve during acquisition) but not in recall of Subject-Performed Tasks (one-step actions that subjects enact during acquisition). To understand the reasons for the discrepant findings, both types of item were included in a study examining the effects of object cues, rate of presentation, and aging. Variations in presentation rate or use of objects did not account for the different findings on the two item types. Even when presentation rate and object cues were matched, larger age differences were found for recall of cognitive activities than of SPTs. Age differences were also affected by the interaction of item type, presentation rate, and the presence of objects during encoding. To identify the variables controlling age differences, more analysis is needed of the features of activities to be remembered.