Adult Age Differences in Recognition Memory and Frequency Judgments for Planned Versus Performed Activities

Young and elderly adults received a series of tasks (e.g., card sorting, arithmetic) that were planned for performance and subsequently performed with varying frequencies under intentional and incidental memory conditions. Following the series of tasks, subjects estimated the frequencies with which task activities had been both performed and planned. Recognition memory scores derived from performance judgment scores revealed a significant age deficit in identifying those activities that had been performed earlier. However, memory was unaffected by intentionality at each age level. These results imply a modest age deficit for encoding rehearsal-independent episodic events. On the other hand, no age differences were found for reality monitoring. That is, elderly adults were as proficient as young adults in discriminating between planning of an activity and the performance of an activity in terms of absolute frequency judgment scores.