Adult age differences in the use of schematic and episodic information in making social judgments

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that older adults are more likely than younger adults to rely on schematic information in making various types of judgments. We explored the conditions under which age differences would occur in the use of schematic versus episodic information in making social judgments. We were specifically interested in examining performance when age differences in the availability of episodic information were minimal. No age effects were observed in judgment tasks where responses were biased toward exclusive reliance on one or the other type of information. However, in a situation where both types of information could be used, the responses of older adults were less likely than those of younger adults to be influenced by available episodic information.