Frequency judgments for distractor items in a short-term memory task: Instructional variation and adult age differences

Abstract

The present study compared memory of both young adults and elderly adults for frequency information under true incidental and intentional memory conditions that differed with respect to the presence or absence of rehearsal strategies. The paradigm involved a short-term memory task for which the distractor words verbalized during the retention interval varied in frequency of occurrence. Prior knowledge of the frequency judgment test for the distractor items (intentional memory) lowered short-term memory proficiency, particularly for elderly adults, but had no effect on frequency judgments, relative to the absence of prior knowledge of the frequency test (incidental memory), for both young and elderly adults. Elderly adults were less proficient than young adults on both the short-term memory task and the frequency judgment task.