Effects of retention interval length on young and elderly adults' memory for spatial information

Adult age differences in spatial memory following retention intervals of various lengths were examined in 47 young and 56 elderly subjects who recalled spatial information following either a 3-, 15-, or 30-min retention interval. The elderly adults were significantly less accurate than the young adults following the 30-min retention interval only; there was no statistically significant effect of age at the 3-min and 15-min retention intervals. It is concluded that younger adults experience greater temporal stability of spatial memory than do older adults, and the relevance of the present findings for Craik's environmental support hypothesis is discussed.