Word List Recall in Youngsters and Older Adults

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: kashida; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; text-align: justify; text-kashida: 0%;"><span style="mso-bidi-language: FA;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">A word<span dir="rtl" lang="FA">-</span>list recall is an experiment examines the effect of age on the change in memory. The ability to understand or use language is more or less dependent on the memory capacity. Any person may know what s/he wants to say but may not be able to say it if the memory does not help. We use some form of memory in all aspects of language processing. Whatever we have in our mind is stored whether for seconds, hours, or years. By short-term memory, a person can remember different things for a period of seconds or minutes only. By rehearsal, the duration and the quantity of storage will increase. Therefore, rehearsal transforms the short-term memory into the long-term memory. This experiment, which examines the number of words recalled by different age groups after presenting a word list, reveals that the younger a person the more are the words he or she recalls. The experiment also reveals that semantically related words have greater chance to be remembered when they are compared with unrelated words.</span></span></span></p>

Keywords

• Aging, short-term memory, long-term memory, semantically related words, word list recall.