Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 3 P126-P133, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America
Age and gender differences in the effectiveness of map-like learning aids in memory for routes
LJ Caplan and PD Lipman
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Young (ages 25-40 yrs) and older (ages 60-75 yrs) adults viewed a series of
slides depicting a route through a neighborhood and were tested on their
ability to remember the route. Subjects either received no learning aid, a
sketch of the route labeled as a "map," or the same aid labeled a
"diagram." Aids either did or did not include route landmarks. Relative to
younger men, older men's performance was significantly poorer only when
they had no learning aid. In contrast, age differences for women were
obtained only when the aid had been labeled a "map." The presence of
landmarks eliminated age-related decrements in scene memory for men but
increased them for women. In addition, results were consistent with the
hypothesis that memory for large-scale environments is composed of "layout"
(i.e., configural) and "scene" components.
