Adult age differences in the effects of environmental context on memory performance

In two experiments, we examined the hypotheses that the memory performance of older adults is more dependent than that of younger adults on environmental context, and that the integration of to-be-remembered items with contextual cues benefits older more than younger adults. When younger and older adults were shown simple line drawings that were not explicitly associated with the external environment, there was no effect on recall of a change in environmental context for either age group. However, when subjects heard sentences that connected the simple drawings with environmental cues, an environmental context effect was observed. Both age groups recalled more in the same than in a different environment, and the magnitude of the facilitation effect of the familiar context was equal for younger and older adults. However, the integration of the to-be-remembered items with the context facilitated recall regardless of the context present at retrieval, and this effect was larger for younger adults, suggesting that the younger adults were better able to use the provided integrations than were the older adults.