Immediate and delayed (one-week) recall and recognition of connected verbal material in a group of 44 elderly and young adults were investigated. Recognition performance was assessed with Signal Detection Theory techniques, in order to analyze retention independently of response criterion. The relationships between performance and sex, education, occupation, and WAIS Vocabulary Score were also studied. The aged showed a relatively greater decrement in long-term recall than immediate, and lower recognition memory scores at both intervals. There were no age differences in response criterion. Of the background variables, WAIS Vocabulary had a positive relationship to performance, and occupation was negatively related to memory scores. The results provided evidence for a storage deficit in the elderly, at least with prose material.
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Gordon et al. (1974) studied this question.