Cognitive aging research documents reduced access to contextually specific episodic details inolder adults, whereas access to semantic or other nonepisodic information is preserved or facilitated. The present study extended this finding to autobiographical memory by using a new measure; the Autobiographical Interview. Younger and older adults recalled events from 5 life periods. Protocols were scored according to a reliable system for categorizing episodic and nonepisodic information. Whereas younger adults were biased toward episodic details reflecting happenings, locations, perceptions, and thoughts, older adults favored semantic details not connected to a particular time and place. This pattern persisted after additional structured probing for contextual details. The Autobiographical Interview is a useful instrument for quantifying episodic and semantic contributions to personal remote memory.

An extension of L. L. Jacoby's (1991) process-dissociation procedure was used to examine the effects of aging on recollection and automatic influences of memory (habit). Experiment 1 showed that older adults were impaired in their ability to engage in recollection but did not differ from young adults in their reliance on habit. Elderly adults were also less able to exploit distinctive contextual information to enhance recollection. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that with more supportive conditions, older adults were able to benefit from distinctive contextual information. Quantitative and qualitative deficits in recollective abilities are interpreted within a dual-process model of memory. The problem of distinguishing between a deficit in recollection and a deficit in inhibitory processes in older adults (e.g., L. Hasher & R. T. Zacks, 1988) and the importance of this distinction for purposes of repairing memory performance are discussed.

Memory slips are errors in performance that result when an automatic basis for responding (e.g., habit) opposes the intention to perform a specific behavior. Prior research has focused on factors that influence the probability of a memory slip while neglecting factors that facilitate performance. Using L. L. Jacoby's (1991) process-dissociation procedure to examine performance in both a memory-slip and a facilitation condition, the authors separated the contribution of habit and recollection (intentional memory) in a cued-recall task. The authors found that manipulating the strength of habit affected its contribution to performance in a manner that produced probability matching, but recollection was unchanged. In contrast, manipulations of presentation rate and response time influenced recollection but did not affect habit. Such dissociations support a model of memory in which automatic and intentional influences make independent contributions to performance.

The effects of aging on judgments of short temporal durations were explored using the prospective paradigm and the methods of verbal estimation and production. Younger and older adults performed a perceptual judgment task at five levels of complexity for periods of 30, 60, and 120 sec. Participants either continued to perform the task for a specified interval (production) or were stopped and then verbally estimated the interval. Older adults gave shorter verbal estimates and longer productions than did younger adults. The methods of verbal estimation and production yielded approximately equal durationjudgment ratios once range effects were taken into account. Task complexity had little effect. The major conclusion is that duration judgment ratios decrease from younger to older adults when the intervals are filled with a mental task.