Cognitive mapping and elderly adults: verbal and location memory for urban landmarks

This study provides a real-world memory task that extends the ecological validity of previous research on aging and spatial memory. Elderly individuals were found to have less accurate verbal recall of urban landmarks and location memory for landmarks than younger adults. In addition to these quantitative differences in environmental cognition, qualitative aspects of the data were explored. In order to explain the poorer memory performance of elderly adults, participants' use of a geographically based, organizational mnemonic was examined. Furthermore, discriminant analysis revealed that the elderly relied more than younger adults on certain building attributes for memory of urban landmarks. These building attributes include: high public use, high symbolic significance, naturalness of surroundings, direct access to streets, and unique architectural style.