Part set cuing in older adults: further evidence of intact forgetting in aging

The aim of this study was to look at the effect of aging on part set cuing while equating for baseline performance in episodic memory. Younger and older participants listened to three different word lists, each containing 24 words relating to a particular category. During recall, 0, 33, or 66% of the items presented in the learning phase were re-presented as cues. The results showed that recall of the never cued items was equally impaired by the presence of cues in younger and older adults, thus showing equivalent part set cuing effects in both groups. These results parallel previous findings showing equivalent inhibitory effects in younger and older adults with tasks that do not require executive control and provide additional support to previous studies challenging the view that frontal/executive processes play a major role in part set cuing.