Spatial memory in older adults: effects of intentionality.

College students and elderly adults were presented with drawings for study that were placed on the left or right side of a photographic slide. Persons in the items-only condition studied only the target drawings, whereas persons in the items-position condition studied both the target drawing and its location to determine whether intentionality affected picture recognition or position recall. Half of the drawings were presented with an irrelevant adjacent drawing to assess the effect of presenting the target item relative to another drawing. The principal finding was that, although special memory was well above chance, the Hasher and Zack's criteria for automatic processing of this dimension were not met. Specifically, an age-related decline in spatial memory was observed, and intentionality to learn position affected item recognition and position recall. It was also found that older persons' memory for position was enhanced by the irrelevant drawings. Results are discussed primarily in terms of the Hasher and Zacks model of automatic processing and possible encoding strategies utilized by the elderly.