THE ROLES OF PERCEIVED AND ACTUAL CONTROL IN MEMORY FOR SPOKEN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The effects of personal control on memory for spoken language were investigated by allowing younger and older adults to take actual control of the input conditions of recorded narratives under one condition and requiring them to listen without interruption in another. Subjects were also administered the ADEPT‐PIC, a measure of control beliefs in intellectual contexts, as well as a working memory span task measuring the ability to hold and manipulate linguistic information simultaneously in memory. Older adults were less likely than younger adults to take actual control of the speech input, although age differences in perceived control were minimal, suggesting that actual and perceived control are relatively independent influences in the determination of age differences in cognitive performance. These constructs were, nevertheless, interrelated: perceived control was a stronger predictor of prose memory when no actual control was available. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of working memory for mediating the relationship between perceived control and discourse processing. Implications for older adults in instructional contexts are examined.