Memory complaints are extremely common even in the healthy aged. The research proposed herein focusses on age-related deficits in long-term, episodic memory: and the encoding, storage, and retrieval mechanisms responsible for them employing concepts and methods developed in the cognitive neuropsychology of amnesia. Theoretical considerations suggest that many age-related memory deficits reflect difficulties in the encoding, or retrieval, of contextual features of events. A total of 18 experiments representing three parallel tracks consisting of six studies each, explore the effects of age on explicit memory for contextual information, implicit memory for contextual information, and the second- order adults depend on the way in which context is assessed? (2) Will the same pattern of results be observed for all problems with one type of results be observed for all types of contextual information or will order adults have special problems with one type of context? (3) Does access to contextual information in older adults depend on the nature of the encoding conditions? (4) Can older adults derive practical benefits from studying information in multiple contexts? The research will provide a better theoretical understanding of memory, and may suggest ways in which age-related memory deficits can be ameliorated.
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