Eighteen young (almost 16 years of age) and 18 old(average age 70) subjects were assigned to either the control or one of two experimental groups on the basis of their age, sex, vocabulary, and need for achievement scores. All participated in a test session and two experimental sessions. Results indicate that: (1) Items that have been often experienced and are repeatedly represented in the storage system of a subject are recognized faster than items that have been experienced less often. (2) For subjects with large accumulated repertoires (old subjects), the effects of experience with new items of varying frequencies will be relatively less marked than for subjects with smaller repertoires (young subjects). Keeping all other factors constant, their recognition thresholds for such new items are higher than for young subjects. (3) There seem to be age differences in long term need states as measured by the need for achievement test. Old subjects seem to rearrange items at a lower speed than young subjects and consequently have lower achievement test scores. (4) Need-arousing instructions hinder the performance of old subjects, but improve the performance of young ones. Because of their large storage, old subjects seem to become confused rather than being supported by this influence. The authors also discuss the need for further research and the implications of such research. (DO)