The Effect of Implicit and Explicit Motivation on Recall among Old and Young Adults

Seventy-six elderly subjects aged sixty-five to eighty-seven and seventy-seven young adults aged twenty-five to forty were compared on implicit and explicit motive levels and on recall of introductions and working memory. Significantly fewer of the elderly than the young participants scored high in the implicit motives, n Affiliation and n Power, confirming results from U.S. national surveys. The surveys also demonstrated a significant decline with age in high levels of n Achievement, a decline not found here. The elderly participants showed major recall deficits on both tasks, but all three of the implicit motives studied were shown to enhance recall for the elderly, but not for the young adults. Eight elderly women scoring high on at least two of the three motives showed no recall deficits compared to the young women on two memory tasks. In old age implicit motive deficits contribute to poor memory but explicit commitments to have a good memory had no effect on recall.