The Relation of Everyday Activities of Adults to Their Prose Recall Performance.

A study examined the connection between the everyday activities of adults of different ages and their performance on a prose recall task. Subjects were 54 adults, 18 in each of three age groups (18-32, 40-54, and over 62). Written recall of two 388-word expository prose passages was used for the prose recall measure. For the activities measures, subjects kept a structured diary in which they indicated how they spent their time, as well as the specific materials they had read, and how long they had spent reading each item. Regression analyses showed that the demographic variables of age, education, and verbal ability were the best predictors of prose recall. Total time spent reading was also significantly correlated with recall. In multiple regression analyses, reading categories of technical journals, science books, textbooks, and religious materials made significant contributions to explaining the variance in prose recall, as did other activities that require reading. The results provide limited support for a "practice" model that argues that performance on prose recall tasks is related to the amount of practice adults get in similar activities in everyday life. (Author/SRT)