Age-related retention of skilled memory search: examination of associative learning, interference, and task-specific...

Young and older adults performed skilled memory search after either a 3- or 6-month retention interval. Participants were first trained in consistent-mapping (CM) memory search; then, one of the search conditions was subjected to interfering processing activity prior to the retention interval. Retention testing simultaneously examined situations where interfering processing activity either did or did not intervene between original learning and retention testing. In addition, general task-specific learning was assessed. Results indicate that (a) old and young adults equally retained general, task-specific skills; (b) old adults' performance declined more than young adults' performance for trained CM stimuli; (c) when an interfering processing activity was inserted prior to the retention interval, old adults' performance declined disproportionately more than young adults' performance, especially when compared to the task not subjected to such interference; and (d) for both old and young adults all initial retention deficits were quickly eliminated within retention retraining.