Adult age differences in memory for motor versus cognitive activities

Abstract

Young and elderly participants performed on a series of 12 sustained activities (3 minutes each) under either incidental or intentional memory conditions regarding subsequent recall of those activities. Half of the activities were primarily motor in nature, half primarily cognitive. A significant overall age deficit was found for recall. Most important, in contrast to the contextual support hypothesis, the age deficit was as pronounced for motor activities as for cognitive activities. For both kinds of activities, incidental memory was as proficient as intentional memory.