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Two experiments investigated whether age and testing at preferred (optimal) times of day or nonpreferred (nonoptimal) times affected the ability to select relevant from irrelevant but thematically related alternatives in a verbal false memory paradigm. A 3rd experiment pursued the same issues with a visual false memory paradigm. In all 3 experiments, younger adults (n = 195) correctly recalled studied items more often than older adults (n = 121), whereas the 2 age groups correctly recognized about the same numbers of previously studied items. In all 3 experiments, nonoptimally tested older adults had more difficulty excluding nonstudied but thematically related items than the other groups; thus, they showed the greatest evidence of false memory, although all groups did so to a significant extent. The results suggest that optimality and its circadian determinants need to be considered with some tasks for the elderly. Various models and mechanisms are discussed.

The effects of time-of-day preferences on selective attention were tested in 2 experiments after normative work with 975 younger adults and 143 older adults verified C. P. May, L. Hasher, and E. R. finding that most older adults prefer the morning, whereas younger adults prefer activities later in the day. In Experiment 1, the cognitive effects of testing at preferred or nonpreferred times of day were examined in negative priming and related paradigms because (a) older adults typically have not shown negative priming and (b) previous research has not taken preference and testing times into account. In contrast to those tested at nonpreferred times, both younger and older groups tested at their preferred times showed negative priming. Age or testing optimality also affected other priming tasks. The central results were replicated in Experiment 2, which tested younger and older adults at their preferred times of the middle of the day.

The effects of experimenters' expectations on subjects' responses in imagery paradigms were investigated by leading some experimenters to believe that performance based on the use of imagery would be superior to performance based on perception. Other experimenters were led to expect perceptual superiority. Three paradigms are tested. Experiment 1 considered imaginal and perceptual acuity as functions of the size and relative brightness of the stimulus patterns; Experiment 2 compared imaginal and perceptual scanning of maps; and Experiments 3 and 4 studied the identification of rotated hands after imaginal or perceptual priming. In all the experiments, subjects' performances varied with the experimenters' beliefs, suggesting that these paradigms are sensitive to subtle influences from experimenters' tacit, unintentional cues. Experiment 4 probed the ability of observers to identify both tacit cues and the experimenters' expectations. The observers accurately assigned the experimenters' beliefs but were unable to systematically detect distinguishing and differential characteristics of the experimenters' presentations of the instructions. Analysis of taped transcriptions yielded some differences in temporal phrasing. Implications of these results are discussed.

Four experiments demonstrated that such sensory-perceptual features of objects as weight, color, and numerosity affect imaginal performance involving images of those objects. For example, imaginary transport times of objects increased with both the hypothetical weight of the imagined object and the distance traversed. The transport functions were steeper when a map of the terrain was imagined than when it was perceived, suggesting that imaginal performance of heft did not parallel more perceptually guided performance. Corresponding to the view that images activate noncanonical information from long-term memory, mental transport times were longer for maps of familiar terrains than for those of presumably unelaborated unfamiliar terrains. Further, the effects of imaginary color discriminations depended on the familiarity of the object being imagined. Images of customarily colored familiar objects were generated faster when projected onto a surface of the same color than when projected onto a surface of another color, whereas images constructed from unfamiliar targets were recognized more accurately when the target's color differed substantially from that of the ground than when it differed by a smaller amount. The results were predicted by a model that assumed that images may incorporate ancillary characteristics in addition to canonical information.