Research article summary (published 27 Feb 1987):

Effects of word fragment completion on free recall. A selective improvement of older adults.

Full Abstract

Younger adults (mean age 20.7 years), 73-year-olds, and 82-year-olds studied words and words with two missing letters that had to be completed (word fragments) under incidental learning conditions. Results from an unexpected free recall test showed that the 82-year-olds recalled significantly more word fragments than words, whereas the 73-year-olds showed a slight improvement in the same direction. The younger adults, on the other hand, did not benefit from the additional encoding activity of the word fragment completion, although they showed a higher level of recall performance than the elderly groups for both encoding conditions. It is suggested that older adults may need the attentional guidance provided by the problem-solving demands of word fragment completion to perform maximally in this situation, whereas younger adults, because of a superior ability for self-initiated recoding operations, are less dependent on this form of cognitive support.

Author information

Author/s: Bäckman, L (L); Karlsson, T (T);

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education, Berlin, West Germany.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Comprehensive gerontology. Section B, Behavioural, social, and applied sciences (Compr Gerontol B), published in DENMARK. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1987-Mar; vol 1 (issue 1) : pp 4-7

Dates: Created 1988/08/19; Completed 1988/08/19; Revised 2009/06/04;

PMID: 3453282, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/4/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Aging - psychology Cognition

Humans Memory - physiology Mental Recall - physiology Problem Solving Word Association Tests

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