The primary purpose of the proposed research is to examine adult age differences in the manner in which events and people are remembered. There is growing evidence that age differences in memory are attenuated when older adults can draw upon existing knowledge to interpret an event and thereby organize its representation in memory. When the event to be remembered is relatively novel or inconsistent with experience, older adults are at a disadvantage relative to younger adults. The proposed project builds upon previous research by examining age differences in knowledge influences on social cognition (i.e., the processing of information in social contexts). Few studies exist that have examined such processes in relation to aging, with most of the research on cognitive skills being studied in nonsocial contexts. If we are to further our understanding of everyday functioning of older adults, which includes participation in social interactions, research needs to be performed that specifically examines the extent to which existing notions of cognitive aging generalize across contexts. Of primary concern in the present research are aspects of social cognition that deal with how we interpret and remember the behavior of others. Two specific areas are of concern. First, age differences will be examined in social knowledge concerning person-types and personality traits. Both types of information are important in interpreting the behavior of others, and potential changes in such knowledge associated with age-related social role transitions could result in young and old adults interpreting the same person information in totally different ways. Such mismatches in knowledge could well be the source of age-group stereotypes held by different-aged individuals. Second, age differences will also be examined in the extent to which general social knowledge versus specific situational information is remembered and used in processing information about people. If older adults rely more on general knowledge-based information, they may form more stereotyped impressions of people they meet because they are less likely to retain or attend to specific behavioral information. Age differences in such processes would have great implications for the ease of attitude change in different-aged adults. It is hoped that the results of this research will provide a clearer understanding of the cognitive skills of older adults as they pertain to social behavior.
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