Adult age differences in spatial memory: effects of distinctiveness and repeated experience

Young (mean age = 25.0) and elderly (mean age = 65.0) women's memory for buildings in a large model town was assessed. Participants viewed and constructed the town on two trials. Building distinctiveness was manipulated by showing differentiated buildings with unique physical and functional properties (e.g., school, gas station), or nondifferentiated buildings that were not functionally distinct and only somewhat physically distinct (e.g., red cube-like structure with curved roof, yellow cube-like structure with flat roof). Building distinctiveness was further manipulated by verbally labeling or not labeling each building type. On Trial 1 young adults were more accurate than elderly adults only on the differentiated buildings; on Trial 2 this age difference was evident on differentiated and nondifferentiated buildings. Verbal labeling did not significantly affect construction accuracy. It was concluded that age differences occurred because elderly adults have more difficulty utilizing encoding strategies than young adults.