The Electrodermal Orienting Response and Memory: An Analysis of Age Differences in Picture Recall

Young and elderly women were compared on electrodermal measures of the orienting response (OR) to picture stimuli presented during the study phase of a free recall task. Responses were also recorded during a subsequent simple habituation paradigm which was designed to investigate stimulus priming effects. Young subjects recalled more pictures than the elderly and both groups remembered more pictures with common word names than pictures with uncommon verbal labels. Young and older subjects displayed larger skin conductance responses to recalled pictures, especially to recalled uncommon pictures. Older women, however, displayed consistently smaller SCRs than the young. Stimulus priming was observed on the first trial of habituation training where not‐recalled pictures evoked smaller SCRs than pictures not shown in the study phase. There were no age differences in habituation across trials. In general, the results indicated that the electrodermal OR is functionally related to recall performance and that the age decrement in recall may be attributed to reduced cognitive effort in the elderly.