Effects of prior retrieval on adult age differences in long-term recall of activities

The beneficial effects of prior short-term retrieval on the later long-term recall of activities were tested for both young adult and elderly adult subjects. For a series of 12 activities, short-term recall tests occurred after each block of 2, 4, or 6 activities. Relative to a control condition receiving no interpolated short-term tests, long-term recall was higher overall for the interpolated recall conditions at both age levels. However, the magnitude of the age-related deficit was unaffected by the various conditions. The greatest increment in long-term recall occurred for the groups receiving short-term tests after every four activities. The optimal benefit of prior retrieval as a mnemonic seems to come from conditions that demand some degree of cognitive effort as well as a moderately high level of successful short-term retrieval. In addition, a significant age-related deficit in recall was found for a short list of 6 activities as well as for the longer list of 12 activities.