Age and access time for different memory codes

Pairs of words were presented to young and elderly subjects for matching decisions on one of three bases: physical, acoustic or taxonomic indentity. Elderly subjects took longer for all types of decisions, especially for acoustic decisions. The only indication that the elderly were disproportionally slower for semantic decisions was for pairs requiring a "different" response, compared to decisions yielding a "same" response. These results suggest that speed of access to semantic information is not a major factor in age differences in recall following semantic or nonsemantic processing.