Two successive multitrial free recall tasks were presented to five age groups of women (18-27 years, 40-49 years, 50-59 years, 60-69 years, and 70-85 years) to determine the degree and nature of learning to learn effects in adulthood. Analyses of performance indicated that there was over-all improvement over successive tasks. However, this learning to learn effect varied as a function of age and stage of learning. As chronological age increased, there was a shift from a pattern of positive transfer at all stages of learning to a pattern of negative transfer in the early stages of learning followed by positive transfer during the later stages of learning. Analyses of measures of organization also indicated that there was over-all improvement over successive tasks, suggesting that cognitive organization is a higher order skill involved in learning to learn. There were also significant age differences on the organization measures. As chronological age increased, less organization of the material was exhibited.