Spatial memory in young and elderly adults: category structure of stimulus sets

In 1987, Sharps and Gollin reported that the spatial memory of older adults is aided more than that of young adults by visually distinctive cues to location. In 1990, Park, Cherry, Smith, and Lafronza failed to reproduce these results. In the present study, strong category structure yielded results analogous to those of Park et al., and weak category structure similar to that of Sharps and Gollin yielded the same pattern of results as those in their study. The categorical interrelatedness of stimulus items was shown to be of potential importance in the resolution of the discrepancy between the 2 reports.