In a person perception paradigm, 72 young and 72 old adult Ss listened to tape recordings of a nonforgetful, moderately forgetful, or highly forgetful female target person being interviewed for a volunteer job. Ss then rated their opinion of the target's memory and how likely they would be to assign the target to easy and difficult tasks. Overall, Ss gave higher memory opinion ratings to old than to young targets. As expected, they were more likely to assign tasks to nonforgetful than to forgetful targets. However, they were more egalitarian than was hypothesized in their task assignment ratings for forgetful young versus forgetful old targets.

Previous person perception research has indicated that people use an age-based double standard when judging targets who experience single instances of memory failure. The two experiments reported here extend the investigation by assessing whether perceivers evidence a similar bias in judging both the memory capability and personal traits of targets who vary in age and degree of forgetfulness. In the first experiment 179 young adults rated how likely they would be to choose a certain type of neighbor, described in a two-page vignette, to perform memory tasks. The neighbor's (i.e., target person's) age and degree of forgetfulness were manipulated. Participants gave higher choice ratings to nonforgetful than to forgetful targets. Also, they gave higher choice ratings to old over young targets. In the second experiment ninety young adults rated the degree to which they considered targets (described in the same vignettes used in the first experiment) to possess specific traits (e.g., responsible) that were both desirable and relevant to performing memory tasks. Nonforgetful targets received higher ratings than forgetful targets and older targets received higher ratings than young targets. The perception that older targets possess such traits to a greater degree than young targets may explain the initial finding that respondents were more likely to choose old over young targets to perform memory tasks.

A person-perception paradigm was used to investigate how primary care physicians appraise young, middle-aged, young-old, or old-old hypothetical patients (targets) who experience incidences of everyday memory failure. The physicians distinguished among targets who experienced short-, long-, and very long-term types of failure. However, their ratings of the point at which they would recommend intervention and of the referrals they would make in response to the three types of failure were not affected by the age of the target. The physicians' responses are compared with prior research results obtained for lay subjects' appraisals of young versus older targets' memory failures. The implications for primary care physicians' views of the significance of everyday memory failures in older adults are discussed.

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The various stresses experienced, by the individual providing care for an elderly spouse or parent are referred to as caregiver's burden.The present study examines the influence of the relationship between sisters on the perceived burden of the caregiving daughter. In addition to the quality of the sibling bond, the effect of proximity is also examined.The 58 participants completed questionnaires which assessed the amount of caregiving, the perceived burden, and the quality of the relationship with the sister. Correlational analyses indicated a strong negative correlation between burden and closeness (p < .01). The results of regression analyses indicated that proximity to the sister was not a significant predictor of burden (p < .25), but that closeness to the sister predicted 6% of the variance in perceived burden (p < .01).The findings of this study illustrate that the quality of the sibling bond between sisters can be an important influence on the perception of caregiver's burden. When sisters have a close relationship, even when they do not live in proximity, the perceived burden of the caregiving daughter can be mediated.