Social and collaborative discourse reduces the adverse effect of age on learning and memory

The adverse effects of aging on declarative memory are reliably observed when younger and older adults are compared on standard memory tests. We examined learning within a social and collaborative referential context, to determine whether this learning environment might alter the negative effects of aging. Younger pairs outperformed older pairs early in the task, but remarkably, these differences were attenuated and, on some measures, abolished by the end of the task, as older adults evidenced learning that was indistinguishable from younger adults. Learning in a social and collaborative setting may mitigate age-related cognitive decline and offers promise in memory rehabilitation