Memory performance in relation to age, verbal ability, and activity

Young and old adults completed a vocabulary test, the Activities Frequency Inventory (AFI), the Activity Preference Scale (APS), and memory rests that sampled six domains of everyday memory. The young adults' memory performance was significantly higher than the old adults'. Memory was better for the high-APS young than for the low-APS young and for the high-AFI old than for the low-AFI old. However, the age gap in memory performance was not closed when a subsample of active elderly was compared with a subsample of inactive young. Also, in regression analyses, neither activity measure added significantly to the vocabulary measure in predicting memory performance for either age group.