Schematic support increases memory strategy use in young and older adults.

During learning, a shift in processing often occurs with task experience, where initial slow, algorithmic processing proceeds into fast, retrieval-based processing. Older adults are slower than young adults in the rate at which this shift occurs, in part due to a reluctance to use a retrieval strategy. The present research employed task materials that alleviate age-related differences in associative memory so that participants could rely on...