https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5604-3494
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ABSTRACT
The present study investigated age-related differences in retrieval from long-term memory using a semantic fluency task in which participants recalled animals during a 5-minute retrieval period. We evaluated the relative uniqueness of items and their output position within the retrieval process to further elucidate how younger and older adults access and retrieve semantic knowledge in long-term memory. Although older (n = 96, aged 56-79, M = 62.44) and younger adults (n = 98, aged 18-27, M = 23.44) scored similarly for retrieval fluency and originality, these abilities tended to decline when we analyzed age as a continuous variable, indicating some preservation in earlier adulthood, but impairment in older age. Additionally, participants tended to recall common, more easily accessible items before unique, less accessible items, and this pattern was more prominent in older adults. Thus, there are both similarities and differences in semantic fluency in older age.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Grace Roseman and Drew Murphy for their assistance in coding and scoring the data.
Disclosure statement
The authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
Notes
1. While some animals may fit into multiple categories (e.g., snake), these exemplars were consistently placed in the category/environment with which they best fit/are most abundant.
2. Note that 45 participants (24 younger adults, 25 older adults) did not retrieve an original item making it impossible to compute correlations for these participants.