Centre for Policy on Ageing



Age-related deficits in intentional memory for spatial location in small-scale space — a meta-analysis and methodological critique
Author(s)	Pierre Foisy
Journal title	Canadian Journal on Aging, vol 13, no 3, Fall 1994
Pages	pp 353-367
Keywords	Cognitive processes ; Memory and Reminiscence ; Mental ageing ; Evaluation.
Annotation	The goal of this meta-analysis was to provide an estimation of the average effect of ageing on intentional memory for spatial location in small-scale space. Findings from 22 studies, which represent the testing of 1,598 subjects, were compared using the following statistics: Cohen's d, Hays's omega, and proportion of classified subjects. The meta-analysis suggests that the effect of ageing is "large" (e.g. the average d was 0.81), and that it is proportional to the number of dimensions of the array used. However, these conclusions have to be treated with caution, because of some methodological limitations of the reviewed literature. In particular, less than half of the studies mentioned control for: differences often found between young and older people in visual acuity; and having used a test phase of fixed duration. It is recommended that future research on age-related deficits in spatial memory take into account these confounds. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-970821236 A
Classmark	DA: DB: D6: 4C
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.