Memory complaints in younger and older adults

Two samples of older and younger subjects were administered a series of memory tasks and questionnaires tapping their perceptions about their own memory functioning. As in previous research, memory performance was usually better in the younger than in the older sample. In contrast, perceptions about memory varied little as a function of age, and these subjective reports were not related to objective memory performances. These results are relevant to theories that metacognition plays an important role in mediating performance declines with advancing age. If metacognition is implicated in age‐related memory differences, it is some aspect of metacognition other than long‐term beliefs about memory functioning (e. g. short‐term perceptions that occur while attempting to perform memory tasks).