Effects of adult aging on utilization of temporal and semantic associations during free and serial recall

Older adults show poorer performance than young adults at word list recall, especially for order information. In contrast with this temporal association deficit, older adults are generally adept at using preexisting semantic associations, when present, to aid recall. We compared the use of temporal and semantic associations in young and older adults’ word list recall following both free recall and serial recall instructions. Decomposition of serial position curves confirmed that older adults showed weakened use of temporal context in recall in relation to young adults, a difference that was amplified in serial recall. Older adults’ temporal associations were also less effective than young adults’ when correlated with serial recall performance. The differential age decrement for serial versus free recall was accompanied by a persistent influence of latent semantic associations in the older adults, even when maladaptive for serial recall.