Johnson, M.K., Reeder, J.A., Raye, C.L., & Mitchell, K.J. (2002). Second thoughts versus second looks: An age-related deficit in reflectively refreshing just-active information. Psychological Science, 13, 64-67.

Age-related deficits in memory are greater as encoding and retrieval tasks require more reflective (self-generated or executive) processing. One problem in developing more specific models of age-related changes in cognition is that the tasks studied tend to be complex and vary in the combinations of component cognitive processes they recruit. Here we report an age-related deficit in one of the most elementary, but critical, components of reflection: refreshing a just-activated representation. Impairment in such a process potentially has a wide-ranging impact on all higher-order cognition.

© 2002 American Psychological Society