Motivation and memory: Impact of emotional content and age relevance on recall

Abstract. The present study investigated the compensatory impact of motivation to learn on memory performance with age. Twenty-one university undergraduate young adults (M = 22.7, SD = 2.6) and 19 community-dwelling older adults (M = 72.7, SD = 6.6) performed an emotional story memory task with an immediate and delayed recall 7 days later. The emotional content and the age relevance of the stories were manipulated to increase the motivation of older adults to learn. As postulated, results showed no age differences on the recall of positive stories, whereas the recall of negative and neutral stories was lower for older than young adults. In conclusion, motivational aspects may lead to the equivalent memory performance of young and older adults.