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Papers:
Ariel, R., Price, J., & Hertzog, C. (2015). Age-related associative memory deficits in value-based remembering: The contribution of agenda-based regulation and strategy use. Psychology and Aging, 30, 795-808.
ABSTRACT: Value-based remembering in free-recall tasks may be spared from the typical age-related cognitive decline observed for episodic memory. However, it is unclear whether value-based remembering for associative information is also spared from age-related cognitive decline. The current experiments evaluated the contribution of agenda-based based regulation and strategy use during study to age differences and similarities in value-based remembering of associative information. Participants studied word pairs (Experiments 1–2) or single words (Experiment 2) slated with different point values by moving a mouse controlled cursor to different spatial locations to reveal either items for study or the point value associated with remembering each item. Some participants also provided strategy reports for each item. Younger and older adults allocated greater time to studying high- than low-valued information, reported using normatively effective encoding strategies to learn high-valued pairs, and avoided study of low-valued pairs. As a consequence, both age groups selectively remembered more high- than low-valued items. Despite nearly identical regulatory behavior, an associative memory deficit for older adults was present for high-valued pairs. Age differences in value-based remembering did not occur when the materials were word lists. Fluid intelligence also moderated the effectiveness of older adults’ strategy use for high-valued pairs (Experiment 2). These results suggest that age differences in associative value-based remembering may be due to some older adults’ gleaning less benefit from using normatively effective encoding strategies rather than age differences in metacognitive self-regulation per se.
External link: doi: 10.1037/a0039818
Hertzog, C., Fulton, E. J., Mandviwala, L., & Dunlosky, J. (2013). Older adults show deficits in retrieving and decoding mediators generated at study. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1127-1131.
ABSTRACT: We instructed the use of mediators to encode paired-associate items, and then measured both cued recall of targets and mediators. Older adults (n = 49) and younger adults (n = 57) studied a mixed list of concrete and abstract noun pairs under instructions to either generate a sentence or an image to form a new association between normatively unrelated words. After each item was studied, they reported the mediator, if any, they had generated. After standard cued recall for each item, they were asked to recall their mediator. Large age differences (d = 1.52) occurred in mediator retrieval during a cued recall test. Older adults were less likely to retrieve mediators, and when they did, their retrieved mediators were more often gist-consistent than verbatim retrievals. Older adults were also more likely to report the wrong target word when correctly retrieving the mediator. Age differences in these decoding errors were large statistical effects, especially for abstract items (d = 1.41) relative to concrete items (d = 0.54). Older adults’ associative memory deficits have more to do with retrieval mechanisms than with inadequate encoding strategies.
External link: doi:10.1037/a0029414
Leshikar, E. D., Duarte, A., & Hertzog, C. (2012). Task-selective memory effects for successfully implemented encoding strategies. PLoS:ONE, 7(5), e38160
ABSTRACT: Previous behavioral evidence suggests that instructed strategy use benefits associative memory formation in paired associate tasks. Two such effective encoding strategies–visual imagery and sentence generation–facilitate memory through the production of different types of mediators (e.g., mental images and sentences). Neuroimaging evidence suggests that regions of the brain support memory reflecting the mental operations engaged at the time of study. That work, however, has not taken into account self-reported encoding task success (i.e., whether participants successfully generated a mediator). It is unknown, therefore, whether task-selective memory effects specific to each strategy might be found when encoding strategies are successfully implemented. In this experiment, participants studied pairs of abstract nouns under either visual imagery or sentence generation encoding instructions. At the time of study, participants reported their success at generating a mediator. Outside of the scanner, participants further reported the quality of the generated mediator (e.g., images, sentences) for each word pair. We observed task-selective memory effects for visual imagery in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precuneus, and the lingual gyrus. No such task-selective effects were observed for sentence generation. Intriguingly, activity at the time of study in the left precuneus was modulated by the self-reported quality (vividness) of the generated mental images with greater activity for trials given higher ratings of quality. These data suggest that regions of the brain support memory in accord with the encoding operations engaged at the time of study.
External link: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038160
Hertzog, C., Price, J., & Dunlosky, J. (2012). Age differences in the effects of experimenter-instructed versus self-generated strategy use. Experimental Aging Research, 38, 42-62.
ABSTRACT: Background/Study Context: Interactive imagery is superior to rote repetition as an encoding strategy for paired associate (PA) recall. Younger and older individuals often rate these strategies as equally effective before they gain experience using each strategy. The present study investigated how experimenter-supervised and participant-chosen strategy experience affected younger and older adults’ knowledge about the effectiveness of these two strategies.
Methods: Ninety-nine younger (M = 19.0 years, SD = 1.4) and 90 older adults (M = 70.4 years, SD = 5.2) participated in the experiment. In learning a first PA list participants were either instructed to use imagery or repetition to study specific items (supervised) or could choose their own strategies (unsupervised). All participants were unsupervised on a second PA list to evaluate whether strategy experience affected strategy knowledge, strategy use, and PA recall.
Results: Both instruction groups learned about the superiority of imagery use through task experience, downgrading repetition ratings and upgrading imagery ratings on the second list. However, older adults showed less knowledge updating than did younger adults. Previously supervised younger adults increased their imagery use, improving PA recall; older adults maintained a higher level of repetition use.
Conclusion: Older adults update knowledge of the differential effectiveness of the rote and imagery strategies, but to a lesser degree than younger adults. Older adults manifest an inertial tendency to continue using the repetition strategy even though they have learned that it is inferior to interactive imagery.
External link: doi:10.1080/0361073X.2012.637005
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Hertzog, C., & Dunlosky, J. (2012). Metacognitive approaches can promote transfer of training: Comment on McDaniel and Bugg (2012). Journal of Applied Research on Memory and Cognition, 1, 61-63.
ABSTRACT: Comments on an article by Mark A. McDaniel & Julie M. Bugg. McDaniel and Bugg raise important issues regarding the efficacy of memory interventions for older adults. The main purpose of our commentary is to frame their arguments from a metacognitive theoretical perspective on cognitive development that conceptualizes persons as regulators of their own cognitive performance. Metacognitive self regulation requires establishment of a goal, monitoring progress made towards the goal, and adaptively selecting and modifying strategies achieve it. The developmental aspect of metacognition, as it pertains to old age, emphasizes the slow but accelerating age related changes in the efficiency and effectiveness of a number of cognitive mechanisms. McDaniel and Bugg point out that older adults’ prospective memory performance benefits from forming implementation intentions – specific plans for when, where, and how to act on a performance goal. In summary, we argue that what may be critically needed is to assist older adults in building a strategic repertoire by training them to consistently engage in active situation analysis (in terms of strategies that may be helpful) and to actively use monitoring to track goal progress so as to inform adaptive strategy use.
External link: doi: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.10.003
Dunlosky, J., Bailey, H., & Hertzog, C. (2011). Memory enhancement strategies: What works best for obtaining memory goals? In P. E. Hartman-Stein & A LaRue (Eds.), Enhancing cognitive fitness in older adults: A handbook for the development of community programs (pp 3 – 23). New York, NY: Springer Science + Business Media.
ABSTRACT: Adults of all ages experience difficulties remembering important information at times, and these difficulties occur more often as we grow older. Fortunately, a variety of easy-to-use strategies can be used to help people improve their learning and retention of a wide array of to-be-learned materials. In this chapter, we describe (a) many of these strategies, (b) why they work, and (c) how to apply basic principles of memory to adapt strategies to effectively learn and remember in novel contexts. Given that these strategies are often best suited for a single task or context we also briefly discuss techniques that show promise for helping adults’ memory (and cognition) function effectively across many contexts.
External link: Springer
Hertzog, C., & Touron, D. R. (2011). Age differences in memory retrieval shift: Governed by feeling-of-knowing? Psychology and Aging, 27, 647-660.
ABSTRACT: The noun-pair lookup (NP) task was used to evaluate strategic shift from visual scanning to retrieval. We investigated whether age differences in feeling-of-knowing (FOK) account for older adults’ delayed retrieval shift. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) standard NP learning, (2) fast binary FOK judgments, or (3) Choice, where participants had to choose in advance whether to see the look-up table or respond from memory. We found small age differences in FOK magnitudes but major age differences in memory retrieval choices that mirrored retrieval use in the standard NP task. Older adults showed lower resolution in their confidence judgments (CJs) for recognition memory tests on the NP items, and this difference appeared to influence rates of retrieval shift, given that retrieval use was correlated with CJ magnitudes in both age groups. Older adults had particular difficulty with accuracy and confidence for rearranged pairs, relative to intact pairs. Older adults’ slowed retrieval shift appears to be attributable to (1) impaired associative learning early in practice, not just a lower FOK; but also (2) retrieval reluctance
External link: doi: 10.1037/a0021875
Patterson, M. M., & Hertzog, C. (2010). The effect of age in four alternative forced choice item and associative recognition tasks. Psychology and Aging, 25, 235-238.
ABSTRACT: Seventy-three young and 84 older adults were taught interactive imagery as a strategy for learning word pairs. In the control condition, participants viewed word pairs one at a time and formed an interactive image for each. In the experimental condition, participants first formed individual mental images for both the cue and the target, and then formed an interactive image for the pair. Participants in both conditions then completed four alternative forced choice item and associative recognition tasks that avoid influences of age differences in retrieval strategies such as recall-to-reject. Unlike findings with typical yes-no recognition tests, associative recognition was superior to item recognition in the control condition. This effect was attenuated in the experimental condition. Older adults had poorer recognition memory for both associative and item tests, with a larger age difference for recognizing new associations.
External link: doi: 10.1037/a0016046
Bailey, H., Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (2009). Does differential strategy use account for age-related deficits in working memory performance? Psychology and Aging, 24, 82-92.
ABSTRACT: The strategy-deficit hypothesis states that age differences in the use of effective strategies contribute to age-related deficits in working memory span performance. To evaluate this hypothesis, strategy use was measured with set-by-set strategy reports during the Reading Span task (Experiments 1 and 2) and the Operation Span task (Experiment 2). Individual differences in the reported use of effective strategies accounted for substantial variance in span performance. In contrast to the strategy-deficit hypothesis, however, young and older adults reported using the same proportion of normatively effective strategies on both span tasks. Measures of processing speed accounted for a substantial proportion of the age-related variance in span performance. Thus, although use of normatively effective strategies accounts for individual differences in span performance, age differences in effective strategy use cannot explain the age-related variance in that performance.
External link: doi: 10.1037/a0014078
Hertzog, C., Price, J., Burpee, A., Frentzel, W.J., Feldstein, S., & Dunlosky, J. (2009). Why Do People Show Minimal Knowledge Updating with Task Experience: Inferential Deficit or Experimental Artifact? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 155-173.
ABSTRACT: This study evaluated how people learn about encoding strategy effectiveness in an associative memory task. Individuals studied two lists of paired associates under instructions to use either a normatively effective strategy (interactive imagery) or a normatively ineffective strategy (rote repetition) for each pair. Questionnaire ratings of imagery effectiveness increased and ratings of repetition effectiveness decreased after task experience, demonstrating new knowledge about strategy effectiveness. Cued recall confidence judgments, measuring confidence in recall accuracy, were almost perfectly correlated with actual recall and strongly correlated with postdictions—estimates of recall for each strategy. A structural regression model revealed that postdictions mediated both changes in second-list predictions and changes in strategy effectiveness ratings, implicating accurate performance estimates based on item-level monitoring as the key to updating strategy knowledge.
External link: doi: 10.1080/17470210701855520
Price, J., Hertzog, C., & Dunlosky, J. (2008). Age-related differences in strategy knowledge updating: blocked testing produces greater improvements in metacognitive accuracy for younger than older adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 15(5), 601-626.
ABSTRACT: Age-related differences in updating knowledge about strategy effectiveness after task experience have not been consistently found, perhaps because the magnitude of observed knowledge updating has been rather meager for both age groups. We examined whether creating homogeneous blocks of recall tests based on two strategies used at encoding (imagery and repetition) would enhance people’s learning about strategy effects on recall. Younger and older adults demonstrated greater knowledge updating (as measured by questionnaire ratings of strategy effectiveness and by global judgments of performance) with blocked (vs. random) testing. The benefit of blocked testing for absolute accuracy of global predictions was smaller for older than younger adults. However, individual differences in correlations of strategy effectiveness ratings and postdictions showed similar upgrades for both age groups. Older adults learn about imagery’s superior effectiveness but do no t accurately estimate the magnitude of its benefit, even after blocked testing.
External link: doi: 10.1080/13825580801956225
Hertzog, C., Price, J., & Dunlosky J. (2008). How is knowledge generate about memory encoding strategy effectiveness. Learning and Individual Differences, 18, 430-445.
ABSTRACT: Age-related differences in updating knowledge about strategy effectiveness after task experience have not been consistently found, perhaps because the magnitude of observed knowledge updating has been rather meager for both age groups. We examined whether creating homogeneous blocks of recall tests based on two strategies used at encoding (imagery and repetition) would enhance people’s learning about strategy effects on recall. Younger and older adults demonstrated greater knowledge updating (as measured by questionnaire ratings of strategy effectiveness and by global judgments of performance) with blocked (versus random) testing. The benefit of blocked testing for absolute accuracy of global predictions was smaller for older than younger adults. However, individual differences in correlations of strategy effectiveness ratings and postdictions showed similar upgrades for both age groups. Older adults learn about imagery’s superior effectiveness but do not accurately estimate the magnitude of its benefit, even after blocked testing.
External link: PMID:19043596
Elizabeth A.L Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Soederberg Miller, L.M., Gagne D.D., & Hertzog, C. (2008). Self-regulated reading in adulthood. Psychology and Aging, 23, 131-153.
ABSTRACT: Younger and older adults read a series of passages of three different genres for an immediate assessment of text memory (measured by recall and true-false questions). Word-by-word reading times were measured and decomposed into components reflecting resource allocation to particular linguistic processes using regression. Allocation to word and textbase processes showed some consistency across the three text types and was predictive of memory performance. Older adults allocated more time to word and textbase processes than the young did, but showed enhanced contextual facilitation. Structural equation modeling showed that greater resource allocation to word processes was required among readers with relatively low working memory spans and poorer verbal ability, and that greater resource allocation to textbase processes was engendered by higher verbal ability. Results are discussed in terms of a model of self-regulated language processing suggesting that older readers may compensate for processing deficiencies through greater reliance on discourse context and on increases in resource allocation that are enabled through growth in crystallized ability.
External link: doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.23.1.131
Hertzog, C., Dunlosky, J., & Robinson, E. (2007). Intellectual abilities and metacognitive beliefs influence spontaneous use of effective encoding strategies.
ABSTRACT: Intelligence is strongly related to episodic memory. One explanation is that individuals with greater processing capacity are more likely to use effective strategies during encoding, but this hypothesis has not been empirically tested. A sample of 335 participants (ages 26 – 83) completed measures of cognitive abilities (e.g., inductive reasoning, processing speed, working memory), memory beliefs, episodic memory (associative recall and free recall), and strategic behavior on the memory tasks. For both memory tasks, cognitive abilities predicted individual differences in the spontaneous use of effective strategies (e.g., interactive imagery for associative recall), which in turn accounted for individual differences in memory performance. Nevertheless, strategy use only partially mediated the strong ability-memory relationship and could not explain age-related deficits in memory. Intellectual abilities influence human memory, in part, by providing processing resources that can support effective strategic behavior. Memory control beliefs and metacognitive knowledge also have independent influences on strategy use. Keywords: Intelligence, episodic memory, metacognition, strategy use, control beliefs, aging.
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Hertzog, C., & Dunlosky, J. (2006). Using visual imagery as a mnemonic for verbal associative learning: Developmental and individual differences. In T. Vecchi & G. Bottini (Eds.). Imagery and Spatial Cognition: Methods, Models and Cognitive Assessment (pp 259-280). John Benjamins Publishers: Amsterdam and Philadelphia, The Netherlands/USA.
ABSTRACT: This chapter reviews some basic features of self-reported imagery use as a mnemonic for associative memory and reports empirical results on predictors of imagery use. Two self-report questionnaires about imagery, the VVIQ and IDQ, were used to predict self-reported imagery use in two studies, one in which people were informed about the existence of strategies like imagery, and one where strategy reports were collected retrospectively, so that spontaneous imagery use could be evaluated. In the second study, a strategy knowledge questionnaire was administered. The IDQ, which measures a general disposition to use imagery for functional purposes, was a better predictor of imagery use than the VVIQ, which queries self-reported imagery vividness in an image-instruction paradigm. This finding is consistent with other literature. However, the best predictor of imagery use was an effectiveness rating for that strategy from the knowledge questionnaire. The results extend existing studies by showing that a process-specific strategy measure is a better predictor of using imagery mnemonic use than a general measure of imagery preference (an aspect of a more general cognitive style). There were no adult age differences in the pattern of findings.
External link: doi: 10.1075/aicr.66.20her
Stine-Morrow, E.A.L., Soederberg Miller, L.M., & Hertzog, C. (2006). Aging and self-regulated language processing. Psychological Bulletin, 132(4), 582-606.
ABSTRACT: An adult developmental model of self-regulated language processing (SRLP) is introduced, in which the allocation policy with which a reader engages text is driven by declines in processing capacity, growth in knowledge-based processes, and age-related shifts in reading goals. Evidence is presented to show that the individual reader’s allocation policy is consistent across time and across different types of text, can serve a compensatory function in relation to abilities, and is predictive of subsequent memory performance. As such, it is an important facet of language understanding and learning from text through the adult life span.
External link: PMID:16822168
Dunlosky, J., Hertzog, C., & Powell-Moman, A. (2005). The contribution of mediator-based deficiencies to age-related differences in associative learning. Developmental Psychology, 41 (2), 389-400.
ABSTRACT: Production, mediational, and utilization deficiencies, describing how different aspects of strategy use may contribute to developmental trends across the life-span, have been intensively investigated. By employing the mediator report-and-retrieval method, we present evidence concerning the degree to which two previously unexplored mediator-based deficits retrieval and decoding deficiencies account for age-related declines in associative learning shown in later life. During study, older and younger adults were instructed to use a particular strategy (either imagery or sentence generation) to associate words within each paired associate. After study, they reported the mediator that had just been produced. During criterion recall, they attempted to retrieve each response and the mediator produced at study. Age-related deficits were found in criterion recall. Most important, these differences were associated with isolated effects in mediator-based deficiencies. Specifically, age differences were not evident in the production of mediators or in the features of mediators produced, whereas substantial deficits were evident in mediator retrieval and small, but reliable differences were observed in decoding mediators.
External link: PMID:15769194
Hertzog, C., & Dunlosky, J. (2004). Aging, metacognition, and cognitive control. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), Psychology of Learning and Motivation. San Diego: CA: Academic Press, 215-251.
ABSTRACT: This chapter reviews our research program on strategy use during associative learning. When learning unrelated paired-associates, such as TICK-SPOON, individuals benefit tremendously from the use of mediational strategies, such as forming a sentence using the two words, or creating a visual image with tokens of the two words interacting. Our research has examined individual differences in the instructed and spontaneous use of mediational strategies. Our findings indicate that age deficits in associative learning cannot be attributed to differences in the production of effective mediators. Older adults produce effective mediators, especially when informed about their existence, but reap less benefit from their use. We have also shown that intellectual abilities and metacognitive beliefs predict spontaneous strategy use in adults of all ages.
External link: doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(03)45006-8
Robinson, A. E., & Hertzog, C. (2003). The role of strategies and instructions in relational deductive reasoning. Proceeding of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
ABSTRACT: Deductive reasoning is often seen as being composed of an immutable mechanism, universal to all reasoning situations and consisting of either mental models (e.g., Johnson-Laird, 1983) or formal-rules (e.g., Rips, 1994). Many researchers have questioned whether these positions are truly mutually exclusive (e.g., Roberts, 1993, 2000). Most deductive reasoning research has largely ignored the influence of instructions and strategies on the reasoning process. The present experiment was conducted to investigate reasoning strategies along with metacognitive measures of those strategies. Instructions were given to use a particular strategy (e.g., spatial, verbal). Items were separated into two levels: simple and complex, based on the amount of premises. Premise times, accuracy, and strategy reports were collected. Instructions had an effect on performance, as seen in premise times and accuracy. Also, strategy reports indicated a distribution of strategies utilized by participants. Strategy reports proved vital in corroborating differential patterns of performance indicative of varied approaches to solving this task.
External link:
Matvey, G., Dunlosky, J., Shaw, R., Parks, C., & Hertzog, C. (2002). Age-related equivalence and deficit in knowledge updating of cue effectiveness. Psychology and Aging, 17, 589-597.
ABSTRACT: A critical metacognitive process is the updating of knowledge about cue and strategy effectiveness based on task experience. Prior research, using different methods and measures, has yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding age-related effects on knowledge updating. To resolve this inconsistency, we analyzed the effects of aging on multiple measures of knowledge updating within a single method. Older and younger adults studied cue-target associates during two study-test trials. Cues ranged from less effective rhyme cues to highly effective category cues. On each trial, different items were presented, and participants predicted recall performance, received a cued recall test, and postdicted recall performance. Knowledge updating was operationalized as an improvement in predictive accuracy across trials. An age-related deficits was evident in improvements in absolute accuracy across trials, whereas age differences were negligible in changes in relative accuracy across trials. Evidence from postdictions suggested that deficient inferential processes contributed to the age deficits in knowledge updating.
External link: PMID:12507356
Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (2001). Measuring strategy production during associative learning: The relative utility of concurrent versus retrospective reports. Memory & Cognition, 29, 247-253.
ABSTRACT: Strategy production during associative learning can be measured by self reports made either concurrently with study or retrospectively. Both kinds of report presumably have strengths and weaknesses, yet a systematic comparison has not been conducted. Younger and older adults studied paired associates and reported strategy production using one or both kinds of report. Participants either were or were not informed about mediational strategies prior to study. Retrospective reports were not completely consistent with concurrent reports, suggesting that the validity of retrospective reports is somewhat diminished by forgetting. Making concurrent reports did not affect subsequent retrospective reports, but informing participants about strategies did affect reported strategies for both age groups and recall performance for older adults. A production deficiency constrained older adults’ recall when there were not informed about strategies prior to study. Discussion focuses on the relative utility of concurrent and retrospective reports of strategy production.
External link: PMID:11352207
Dunlosky, J. & Hertzog, C. (2000). Updating knowledge about encoding strategies: A componential analysis of learning about strategy effectiveness from task experience. Psychology and Aging, 15, 462-474.
ABSTRACT: Researchers have argued for age deficits in learning about the relative effects of encoding strategies from task experience, partly on the basis of absolute accuracy of metacognitive judgments. However, these findings could be attributed to factors other than age differences in learning about encoding strategies. Forty older adults and 40 younger adults participated in two study-test trials in which they studied paired associates with either interactive imagery or rote repetition, predicted subsequent recall for the items, attempted to recall each item, and postdicted recall performance. Recall was greater for imagery than repetition, yet this effect was not fully reflected by predictions made on Trial 1, allowing for the possibility of knowledge updating about the strategies on Trial 2. Although, both older and younger adults accurately postdicted recall performance during Trial 1, absolute accuracy of the predictions made on Trial 2 showed little improvement. However, both age groups demonstrated increases in between-person correlations of predictions with recall, which is consistent with age deficits in knowledge updating. Thus, both younger and older adults had updated knowledge about the strategies form task experience, but such updating was not evident in the absolute accuracy of the predictions.
External link: PMID:11014709
Hertzog, C., McGuire, C. L., & Lineweaver, T. T. (1998). Aging, attributions, perceived control, and strategy use in a free recall task. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 5, 85-106.
ABSTRACT: A cross-sectional sample of adults answered two questionnaires regarding beliefs about memory, took a free recall test, and then answered two open-ended questions obtaining causal attributions for memory task performance. Adults of all ages most frequently attributed memory performance to internal skills (typically, strategies for learning and remembering), although older adults were more likely than younger adults to make internal-ability attributions. Self-reported strategies were classified into three ranked categories: (a) optimal (some form of relational processing), (b) marginal (e.g., rote rehearsal), or (c) none (e.g., nonspecific effort). Use of optimal strategies was positively related to recall performance and perceived control over memory for persons of all ages. Age differences in use of strategies were small and did not account for age differences in memory performance.
External link: doi: 10.1076/anec.5.2.85.601
Dunlosky, J., & Hertzog, C. (1998). Aging and deficits in associative memory: What is the role of strategy use? Psychology and Aging, 13, 597-607.
ABSTRACT: A new method was developed to investigate the degree to which age differences in strategy production mediate age differences paired-associate recall. Participants were instructed to use imagery or any strategy and were to report the strategy produced for each item. Age similarities in reported strategy production were found for related (Experiment 1) and unrelated (Experiment 2) word pairs; Both age groups (a) reported using effective mediators (imagery and sentence generation) more often than using no mediators and (b) compiled with instructions to use imagery. Although individual differences in strategy production were related to differences in recall performance, differential strategy production accounted for little of the age differences evident in associative memory.
External link: PMID:9883460