Elderly subjects and college-age subjects were compared on the strategy used to answer a question based on information in memory. The two strategies studied were direct retrieval and plausibility. The first experiment tested the hypothesis that older subjects will rely on the plausibility strategy more than young subjects. A second experiment tested the hypothesis that the different pattern of data is due to processing differences, not differences in the strength of episodic memory traces. Performance was slower in general for older subjects. However, older subjects also tended to modify their performance to minimize the detrimental effects of inferior retention of specifics. In some conditions, older subjects outperformed young subjects even in terms of response time. This resulted from their propensity to use a strategy that depends less on exact memory and that can be more efficient in some circumstances. This strategy involved using consistency as opposed to a careful inspection of the nature of relationships found in memory. (YLB)