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Objectives: To evaluate the impact of aging on controlled memory search operations, we investigated the retrieval of tem- poral order information from working memory (WM). Method: Young and older adults completed a relative judgments-of-recency (JOR) task. In each trial, participants studied 5-item lists and were presented with two probes from the study list. Participants indicated the probe that had appeared more recently in the study list. Results: Analyses of accuracy data showed that young adults were more successful in correctly detecting the more recent probe compared with older adults. To evaluate the retrieval dynamics, we applied Hacker's (1980) serial scanning model on reaction time data. Results from the model fits revealed that older adults were slower in engaging in the serial memory search operations required to access temporal order information from WM. Discussion: These findings suggest that this age-related impairment in a JOR task might arise from a slower deployment of controlled memory operations, such as serial search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Study Context: Older adults exhibit an age-related deficit in item memory as a function of the length of the retention interval, but older adults and young adults usually show roughly equivalent benefits due to the spacing of item repetitions in continuous memory tasks. The current experiment investigates the seemingly paradoxical effects of retention interval and spacing in young and older adults using a continuous recognition memory procedure. Methods: Fifty young adults and 52 older adults gave memory confidence ratings to words that were presented once (P1), twice (P2), or three times (P3), and the effects of the lag length and retention interval were assessed at P2 and at P3, respectively. Results: Response times at P2 were disproportionately longer for older adults than for younger adults as a function of the number of items occurring between P1 and P2, suggestive of age-related loss in item memory. Ratings of confidence in memory responses revealed that older adults remembered fewer items at P2 with a high degree of certainty. Confidence ratings given at P3 suggested that young and older adults derived equivalent benefits from the spacing between P1 and P2. Conclusion: Findings of this study support theoretical accounts that suggest that recursive reminding and/or item retrieval difficulty promote item retention in older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]