APPRAISAL OF EVERYDAY MEMORY FAILURES BY MIDDLE‐AGED ADULTS

Abstract

Middle‐aged women read a series of vignettes describing short‐term memory (STM), long‐term memory (LTM), and very long‐term memory (VLTM) failures experienced by a different young, middle‐aged, or older target person in each vignette. Subjects rated each vignette on separate Likert scales for possible attributions for the failure (ability, effort, task difficulty, luck, and two scales for attention). They also rated whether the failure was a sign of mental difficulty and at what point they would recommend medical and/or psychological evaluation. The middle‐aged subjects viewed the VLTM failures as a greater sign of mental difficulty and as indicating more urgent need for evaluation compared with the STM and LTM failures. However, there were no significant differences in the ratings for the young, middle‐aged, and older target persons. The subjects also completed self‐report rating scales on personal anxiety toward aging, attitude toward aging in intellectual contexts, as well as internal control and achievement motivation in intellectual contexts. Pearson r correlations indicated no significant relationship between any of these variables and the vignette memory‐failure ratings.