Verbal Stimuli; Visual Stimuli

This study was designed to determine whether adults' memory for pictorial and word stimuli might be differentially affected by age. Twenty female secretaries, median age 22.1, and 20 female members of a senior citizens' ' center, median age 69.4, were asked to learn lists of pictorial ` and word stimuli under free recall' conditions. Eight trials were given on each list-and recall was untimed to allow subjects maximum opportunity to develop and use retrieval strategies. Some of the findings indicated that pictorial stimuli were recalled significantly better than the word stimuli. The average number of errors per tj.al was 4.96 for pictures and 6.63 ' for words. The young su cts made significantly fever errors than the old subjects., The young subjects made an average of 4..28 errors per trial whereas the older ubjects made an average of 7.31 errors per. trial. Performance improved for both groups as the number., of trial