The effects of memory elaboration on adult age differences in incidental recall

To test the hypothesis that elaboration of information declines with advancing age, young and elderly adults were tested for incidental recall of target words in base sentences, sentences for which precise (relevant) or imprecise (irrelevant) elaborations were provided, or sentences for which precise or imprecise elaborations were participant-generated. Age differences were greater when participants were instructed to generate precise elaborations than when they were provided precise elaborations, and elderly adults generated fewer precise elaborations than young adults. Results were discussed as reflecting the pervasiveness of elderly adults' difficulty in constructing effective elaborations.