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Abstract:
The episodic memory performance of younger and older adults
was investigated with the purpose of examining age differences in
consistency of performance over time and the influence of circadian
variation on performance. We examined verbal memory in 18 younger
(M age, 23.4 years) and 18 older (M age, 73.3 years) men and women,
with testing alternating between morning and early evening sessions
across four days of testing. On each test day subjects learned a
different list of fifteen unrelated words over four learning
trials. As expected, younger adults outperformed older adults on
immediate and delayed recall, and recognition. Time of day did not
significantly influence episodic memory performance in older or
younger adults. Older adults showed greater incidence of false
memory (i.e., intrusions in free recall and false positive errors
in recognition) than younger adults. The incidence of false memory
errors increased significantly with successive testing days for
older adults. Older adults also exhibited greater performance
variability on the measures of false memory across test days. False
memory and variability of performance have both been linked to
frontal systems dysfunction. The findings presented here support
the frontal lobe hypothesis of cognitive aging.
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