Automatic and effortful semantic processes in old age: Experimental and naturalistic approaches

Abstract

The study of aging and cognition has, not surprisingly, relied on experimental paradigms and theoretical frameworks developed within experimental psychology. Thus much of the research on aging, particularly aging and memory, follows an experimental psychology tradition that has been called “general principles memory research, by which is meant a search for principles or generalizations and their underlying mechanisms and processes” (Bruce, 1985, p. 78). The general principles approach in memory research has been questioned recently by critics who contend that it has yielded accounts of performance on artificial, laboratory tasks designed to test theories, but little insight into memory functioning in everyday life (Hirst & Levine, 1985; Neisser, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1985). Neisser suggests, “If X is an interesting or socially significant aspect of memory, then psychologists have hardly ever studied X” (Neisser, 1978, p. 4).