Recognizing and naming tunes: memory impairment in the elderly

Abstract

Subjects over the age of 50 listened to theme tunes of remote, recent, and frequent television programs. If they recognized the tune, they were asked for the name of the program and for as much information about the program as possible. From the responses to a subsequent questionnaire, it was possible to divide the data according to whether or not the subjects watched the programs. There was no effect of age on the recognition and naming of programs subjects never watched. For programs they watched (a true test of memory), older subjects recognized fewer tunes as familiar and were less able than younger subjects to name the programs with familiar tunes. Neither the amount of exposure nor the delay since exposure had a significant influence on the recognition and naming impairments with age. Older subjects reported less information about programs they watched than younger subjects. In multiple regression analyses, age was a better predictor of performance than measures of current cognitive ability. The results are compared with the effects of age on the recognition and naming of famous faces (Maylor, 1990a). It is argued that the studies together support the view that the information processing rate decreases with age; therefore the elderly are poor at speeded tasks, the most dramatic effects appearing for later components of sequential processes.