Organization and recall of related sentences by elderly and young adults

Differences between elderly and young adults in storage organization of sentence material were investigated using a modification of Mandler's (1967) sorting technique. The elderly were expected to be relatively poor at sorting organization, and would then recall less sentence material. The age groups were also compared on time taken to organize the sentences, recall organization, and performance on a short sentence comprehension test. There were no age differences in conceptual type of organization or clustering of sentences in sorting groups and recall storage organization was not related to the amount of recall. The elderly adults did require more time to acquire the sentences, and had lower recognition test scores. It was concluded that the sorting technique and measures related to it failed to detect the elderly adults' apparent difficulty in acquiring the sentences.