The Encoding and Retrieval of Object Locations by Young and Elderly Adults [electronic resource] / Eugene S. Gollin and Matthew J. Sharps.
Recent research has demonstrated that spatial memory in young and elderly adults depends upon the context in which items to be remembered are placed. Contexts in which cues to location are distinctive and heterogeneous have been found to be associated with better object location memory for both age...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1987.
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| Summary: | Recent research has demonstrated that spatial memory in young and elderly adults depends upon the context in which items to be remembered are placed. Contexts in which cues to location are distinctive and heterogeneous have been found to be associated with better object location memory for both age groups. In this study, the relative contributions of contextual visual distinctiveness at encoding and at retrieval to this effect were assessed. In an earlier study, contexts were identified that either maximized spacial memory performance (e.g., a room with highly distinctive furnishings) or minimized it (e.g., a schematic black-and-white scale map of that room). Since it has been previously demonstrated that one context (the map) hindered spatial memory while the other (the room) aided performance for both age groups, it was possible to estimate the relative importance of encoding and retrieval for successful recall by comparing results of these conditions. Subjects included 24 young adults and 24 active, healthy elderly adults; there were no significant differences in occupational or educational background of respondents. Conditions at encoding were found to be of greater importance to the spatial memory performance of both age groups than were conditions at retrieval. A second experiment using 12 young and 12 elderly adults demonstrated that respondents of both ages tended to encode object locations more effectively than they did the associations of specific locations with specific stimulus objects. (Author/ABL) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED296214. Sponsoring Agency: National Inst. on Aging (DHHS/PHS), Bethesda, MD. Contract Number: 1R01-AG05952-01. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (95th, New York, NY, August 28-September 1, 1987). |
| Physical Description: | 16 p. |