Temporal Memory for Performed Activities: Intentionality and Adult Age Differences

Adult age differences were determined for the temporal memory of when specific activities were performed in a series of laboratory tasks. Young and elderly subjects performed under varying incidental/intentional memory conditions on 16 tasks assigned to four time blocks separated by rest breaks. Following the last task, subjects received two tests of temporal memory. The first required identifying the time block in which each task was performed. The second required reconstructing the serial order in which the tasks had been performed. Temporal memory proficiency was equivalent under incidental and intentional memory conditions for each measure at each age level, thus supporting the rehearsal-independent nature of this form of episodic memory. However, an age deficit was present for each measure. Thus, temporal memory for performed activities appears to be age sensitive rather than age insensitive as assumed by the automaticity of encoding hypothesis. However, the locus of age deficit in terms of the encoding stage or retrieval stage of temporal memory remains uncertain.