Age, imagery, and practice in paired-associate learning

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Abstract
Elderly and college-aged human subjects performed a series of paired-asociate tasks designed to investigate age differences in the use of mnemonic imagery as a strategy in verbal learning. Subjects were tested on 3 occasions at 2 wk intervals. Two 10 pair lists of concrete-noun paired associates were learned at each session. Standard (no-imagery), self-generated and experimenter-provided imagery instructions were used. Imagery instructions are quite beneficial for elders in the short run. Elders tended not to use the strategy effectively after a 2-wk interval unless reminded to do so. Results also indicated that elders were capable of generating useful learning strategies on their own when given sufficient experience with the task.