ADULT AGE DIFFERENCES IN SPEED AND ACCURACY OF MATCHING VERBAL AND PICTORIAL SIGNS

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Abstract
Young (mean age of 19 years) and older (mean age of 69 years) adults participated in a two‐choice, matching‐to‐sample reaction time experiment. Young adults responded more quickly than older adults; all subjects responded more quickly to a verbal standard sign than to a pictorial standard. However, there was an age difference in speed of performance only for those subjects in the stimulus order condition receiving first pictorial standards and then verbal standards. These data are interpreted within a model of dual memory processing systems (verbal and nonverbal). During adulthood there is an increasing tendency for verbal codes to elicit more general associations of both a verbal and a pictorial symbolic nature, while a pictorial code continues to activate only other pictorial stimuli. More generally, the implications of such a model for understanding aging and educational gerontology are discussed.