Equivalent part set cueing effects in younger and older adults

Abstract

In a recall test, presenting some of the items as cues inhibits memory for the remaining items. This finding is known as the part set cueing effect. The aim of the current study was to extend the research on part set cueing into ageing. The involvement of inhibition as the explanatory factor for the part set cueing effect was maximised by using an incidental learning procedure where retrieval strategies could not be built up. The cues were presented either before or at recall (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). The results showed clear and equivalent effects of part set cueing in young and older adults in both experiments. The findings are discussed in relation to Hasher and Zacks’ (1988) inhibitory account of ageing and in relation to the recent theoretical distinction between executive and automatic inhibition (Andrés, Guerrini, Phillips, & Perfect, 2008; Nigg, 2000).