Working memory resource allocation by young, middle-aged, and old adults

Three hypotheses regarding the locus of age differences in working memory were examined in an experiment in which young, middle-aged, and old adults remembered the names of persons standing in line while also performing mental addition. Instructions as to the relative importance of these two tasks were manipulated. The results are highly compatible with the hypothesis of an age-related deficit in a single pool of resources that can be allocated to different tasks. They do not support hypotheses of deficits in one or more pools used separately for processing and storage functions. Middle-aged adults performed as well as young adults and better than old adults.