Repetition increases false recollection in older people

Aging is accompanied by an increase in false alarms on recognition tasks, and these false alarms increase with repetition in older people (but not in young people). Traditionally, this increase was thought to be due to a greater use of familiarity in older people, but it was recently pointed out that false alarms also have a clear recollection component in these people. The main objective of our study is to analyze whether the expected increase in the rate of false alarms in older people due to stimulus repetition is produced by an inadequate use of familiarity, recollection, or both processes. To do so, we carried out an associative recognition experiment using pairs of words and pairs of images (faces associated with everyday contexts), in which we analyzed whether the repetition of some of the pairs increases the rate of false alarms in older people (compared to what was found in a sample of young people), and whether this increase is due to familiarity or recollection (using a remember‐know paradigm). Our results show that the increase in false alarms in older people due to repetition is produced by false recollection, calling into question both dual and single‐process models of recognition. Also, older people falsely recollect details of never studied stimuli, a clear case of perceptual illusions. These results are better explained in terms of source‐monitoring errors, mediated by people's retrieval expectations.     

Self-referencing enhances recollection in both young and older adults

Processing information in relation to the self enhances subsequent item recognition in both young and older adults and further enhances recollection at least in the young. Because older adults experience recollection memory deficits, it is unknown whether self-referencing improves recollection in older adults. We examined recollection benefits from self-referential encoding in older and younger adults and further examined the quality and quantity of episodic details facilitated by self-referencing. We further investigated the influence of valence on recollection, given prior findings of age group differences in emotional memory (i.e., “positivity effects”). Across the two experiments, young and older adults processed positive and negative adjectives either for self-relevance or for semantic meaning. We found that self-referencing, relative to semantic encoding, increased recollection memory in both age groups. In Experiment 1, both groups remembered proportionally more negative than positive items when adjectives were processed semantically; however, when adjectives were processed self-referentially, both groups exhibited evidence of better recollection for the positive items, inconsistent with a positivity effect in aging. In Experiment 2, both groups reported more episodic details associated with recollected items, as measured by a memory characteristic questionnaire, for the self-reference relative to the semantic condition. Overall, these data suggest that self-referencing leads to detail-rich memory representations reflected in higher rates of recollection across age.     

一体化促进联结记忆的作用机制：熟悉性和回想加工

当两个或两个以上项目进行一体化编码时, 熟悉性也能够支持联结再认, 这一观点已经得到大量研究证据的支持。然而, 关于一体化如何影响联结再认和构成联结的单个项目再认仍存在分歧。通过回顾现有研究发现：(1)一体化一致性是调节一体化与联结再认关系的重要因素; (2)认知资源有限和新/旧词语义相关性是影响一体化对项目再认作用的重要因素; (3)一体化的发生机制存在“项目假说”、“图式假说”以及“精细加工假说”三种可能的理论解释。未来研究不仅需要控制一体化一致性, 还可以比较不同一体化方式的作用大小以及探索一体化效应的毕生发展规律。     

Phonological false recognition produced by bottom-up automatic activation in young and older people

ABSTRACT

Two experiments explored a new procedure to implicitly induce phonological false memories in young and older people. On the study tasks, half of the words were formed from half of the letters in the alphabet, whereas the remaining words were formed from all the letters in the alphabet. On the recognition tests, there were three types of non-studied new words: critical lures formed from the same half of the letters as the studied words; distractors formed from the other half of the letters not used, and distractors formed from all the letters in the alphabet. In both experiments, the results showed that, in both young and older people, critical lures produced more false recognitions than distractors composed of all the letters in the alphabet, which, in turn, produced more false alarms than distractors composed of the letters not used during the study. These results support the predictions of the activation/monitoring models, which assume that false memories are partly due to activation spreading from items (semantically or phonologically) related to the critical words.     

The effects of study order and backward associative strength on illusory recollection: A source-strength effect does not always occur

We investigated illusory recollection by dividing lists of associated words into three subsets (high, medium and low) based on their backward associative strength (BAS) to an unstudied theme. Participants studied these subsets at different visual locations on a computer screen and afterwards were given a source memory test. In Experiment 1, we varied the order in which high- and medium-BAS subsets were studied. In Experiment 2, we again manipulated study order as well as the associative strength of the medium-BAS subsets (strong or weak). Across both experiments, illusory recollection was constrained by both study order and BAS. Source attributions to the high-BAS location were more likely (a source-strength effect) when high-BAS items were studied first or studied following items of relatively low associative strength. However, attributions to the strong medium-BAS studied location were more likely when these items were studied before high-BAS items. These findings are interpreted as resulting from misbinding of source details at encoding which can be explained by the activation-monitoring theory of illusory recollection.     

Cognitive reserve and cognitive function in healthy older people: a meta-analysis

The associations between proxy measures of cognitive reserve (CR) and cognition vary across studies and cognitive domains. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the relationship between CR and cognition in multiple domains (memory, executive function, visuospatial ability, and language). CR was considered in terms of three key proxy measures – educational level, occupational status, and engagement in cognitively stimulating activities – individually and in combination. One-hundred and thirty-five studies representing 128,328 participants were included. Of these, 109 used a measure of education, 19 used a measure of occupation, 31 used a measure of participation in cognitively stimulating activities, and 6 used a combination of these. All three proxy measures had a modest positive association with cognition; occupational status and cognitive activities showed the most variation across cognitive domains. This supports the view that the commonly used proxy measures of CR share an underlying process but that each additionally provides a unique contribution to CR.     

A detrimental effect of emotion on picture recollection

Several studies indicate that the recollection process, as assessed by the Remember-Know paradigm (Tulving, 1985) is enhanced for emotional stimuli as compared with neutral ones. The goal of this study was to assess the influence of emotion on recollection process, applying the Processes Dissociation Procedure (PDP; Jacoby, 1991) on emotional and neutral pictures. A total of 63 participants (aged 40-78 years) were included in this study, and the PDP was implemented by a list discrimination task. The results indicate that recollection estimate is lower for positive and negative pictures compared with neutral ones. This finding contrasts with others using the Remember-Know procedure (e.g., Ochsner, 2000) but is in agreement with the previously described trade-off effect (e.g., Jurica and Shimamura, 1999).     

Using warnings to reduce categorical false memories in younger and older adults

Warnings about memory errors can reduce their incidence, although past work has largely focused on associative memory errors. The current study sought to explore whether warnings could be tailored to specifically reduce false recall of categorical information in both younger and older populations. Before encoding word pairs designed to induce categorical false memories, half of the younger and older participants were warned to avoid committing these types of memory errors. Older adults who received a warning committed fewer categorical memory errors, as well as other types of semantic memory errors, than those who did not receive a warning. In contrast, young adults' memory errors did not differ for the warning versus no-warning groups. Our findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of warnings at reducing categorical memory errors in older adults, perhaps by supporting source monitoring, reduction in reliance on gist traces, or through effective metacognitive strategies.     

Antimnemonic effects of schemas in young and older adults

Schema-consistent material that is aligned with an individual’s knowledge and experience is typically more memorable than abstract material. This effect is often more extreme in older adults and schema use can alleviate age deficits in memory. In three experiments, young and older adults completed memory tasks where the availability of schematic information was manipulated. Specifying nonobvious relations between to-be-remembered word pairs paradoxically hindered memory (Experiment 1). Highlighting relations within mixed lists of related and unrelated word pairs had no effect on memory for those pairs (Experiment 2). This occurred even though related word pairs were recalled better than unrelated word pairs, particularly for older adults. Revealing a schematic context in a memory task with abstract image segments also hindered memory performance, particularly for older adults (Experiment 3). The data show that processing schematic information can come with costs that offset mnemonic benefits associated with schema-consistent stimuli.     

The role of articulatory suppression in immediate false recognition

False memory for critical lures has been widely documented in long-term memory using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Recent evidence suggests that false memory effects can also be found in short-term memory (STM), supporting models that assume a strong relationship between short-term and long-term memory processes. However, no study has examined the role of articulatory suppression on immediate false memory, even though phono-articulatory factors are critically involved in STM performance and are an intrinsic part of all STM accounts. The current study proposes a novel paradigm to assess false memory effects in a STM task under both silent and articulatory suppression conditions. Using immediate serial recognition, in which participants had to judge whether two successive mixed lists of six associated and non-associated words were matched, we examined true recognition of matching lists and false recognition of mismatching lists comprising a critical lure or unrelated distractor in two experiments. Results from both experiments indicated reduced true recognition of matching lists and greater false serial recognition of mismatching lists comprising a critical lure under articulatory suppression relative to silence. These findings provide further support for some current models of verbal short-term memory, which posit a strong relationship between short-term and long-term memory processes.     

The ironic effect of guessing: increased false memory for mediated lists in younger and older adults

Younger and older adults studied lists of words directly (e.g., creek, water) or indirectly (e.g., beaver, faucet) related to a nonpresented critical lure (CL; e.g., river). Indirect (i.e., mediated) lists presented items that were only related to CLs through nonpresented mediators (i.e., directly related items). Following study, participants completed a condition-specific task, math, a recall test with or without a warning about the CL, or tried to guess the CL. On a final recognition test, warnings (vs. math and recall without warning) decreased false recognition for direct lists, and guessing increased mediated false recognition (an ironic effect of guessing) in both age groups. The observed age-invariance of the ironic effect of guessing suggests that processes involved in mediated false memory are preserved in aging and confirms the effect is largely due to activation in semantic networks during encoding and to the strengthening of these networks during the interpolated tasks.     

Repetition-lag training to improve recollection memory in older people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. A randomized controlled trial

The results of a randomized controlled trial of repetition-lag training in older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are reported. A modified repetition-lag training procedure with extended encoding time and strategy choice was used. The training required discriminating studied words from non-studied lures that were repeated at varying intervals during the test phase. Participants were assessed pre/post using untrained measures of cognition and self-report questionnaires. Primary outcome measures were recall of unrelated word pairs both immediately following presentation and following a delay. Secondary outcomes were a measure of attention, cognitive flexibility, and visual working memory. Participants were also asked to report on the frequency of cognitive failures and mood before and after training. Participants (N = 31) were randomized into either the treatment or a no-contact control group and attended the clinic twice per week over a four week period. Twenty-four participants completed the study (twelve in each group). Results indicated that the training group improved at recalling unrelated word pairs after a delay. There were no significant effects of training on other outcomes, self-reported cognitive failures or mood. The results are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

Social cognition is not associated with cognitive reserve in older adults

Social and general cognitive abilities decline in late life. Those with high cognitive reserve display better general cognitive performance in old age; however, it is unknown whether this is also the case for social cognition. A total of 115 healthy older adults, aged 60–85 years (m = 44, f = 71) were assessed using The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT-R; social cognition), the Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ; cognitive reserve), and the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II; general cognitive ability). The LEQ did not predict performance on any TASIT-R subtest: Emotion Evaluation Test (β = -.097, p = .325), Social Inference – Minimal (β = -.004, p = .972), or Social Inference – Enriched (β = -.016, p = .878). Sensitivity analyses using two alternative cognitive reserve measures, years of education and the National Adult Reading Test, supported these effects. Cognitive reserve was strongly related to WASI-II performance. Unlike general cognitive ability, social cognition appears unaffected by cognitive reserve. Findings contribute to the emerging understanding that cognitive reserve differentially affects individual cognitive domains, which has implications for the theoretical understanding of cognitive reserve and its brain correlates. Cognitive measures unbiased by cognitive reserve may serve as best indicators of brain health, free of compensatory mechanisms.     

Executive control in older Welsh monolinguals and bilinguals

Evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive control has led to the suggestion that being bilingual might protect against late-life cognitive decline. We assessed the performance of socially homogeneous groups of older (≥60 years) bilingual Welsh/English (n?=?50) and monolingual English (n?=?49) speakers on a range of executive control tasks yielding 17 indices for comparison. Effect sizes (>.2) favoured monolinguals on 10 indices, with negligible differences observed on the remaining 7 indices. Univariate analyses indicated that monolinguals performed significantly better on 2 of 17 indices. Multivariate analysis indicated no significant overall differences between the two groups in performance on executive tasks. Older Welsh bilinguals do not show a bilingual advantage in executive control, and where differences are observed, these tend to favour monolinguals. A possible explanation may lie in the nature of the socio-linguistic context and its influence on cognitive processing in the bilingual group.     

The cognitive functioning of older adult instrumental musicians and non-musicians

This study examined similarities and differences in the cognitive profiles of older adult instrumental musicians and non-musicians. We compared neuropsychological test scores among older adult non-musicians, low-activity musicians (<10 years of lessons), and high-activity musicians (≥10 years of lessons), controlling for self-reported physical and social activity, years of education, and overall health. Significant differences among groups were found on tasks of visual spatial ability, naming, and executive functioning. No significant differences were found on tests of attention/processing speed, or episodic memory. The current study supports late life cognitive benefits of early musical training, but only in select cognitive domains, including language, executive functioning, and visual spatial ability. The results are discussed in the context of cognitive reserve and aging.     

从整合的角度看联结记忆中的项目再认

联结记忆由三种成分构成：项目1, 项目2以及项目1-项目2之间的联结, 其中, 对项目1和项目2的再认称之为项目再认, 而对项目1-项目2之间联结的再认称之为联结再认。双加工理论认为项目再认可以由熟悉性和回想加工来完成, 而联结再认只能由回想加工来完成。但近期有大量的研究发现：当要学习的项目对被整合为一个新的整体表征时, 熟悉性也能够支持联结再认。而关于整合对联结记忆中项目再认的研究较少, 总结已有研究提出两种观点：一种是“只有受益”观点(benefits-only)认为整合在增加联结再认的同时不影响项目再认; 另一种是“收支平衡”观点(costs and benefits)认为整合增加联结再认是以牺牲项目再认为代价的。未来研究应该关注整合对联结记忆中项目再认的影响及其神经机制, 了解整合对联结再认和项目再认的具体作用, 有助于针对具体记忆任务选择合适的编码方式来提高记忆表现。     

Self-reference enhances relational memory in young and older adults

The present study investigated the influence of self-reference on two kinds of relational memory, internal source memory and associative memory, in young and older adults. Participants encoded object–location word pairs using the strategies of imagination and sentence generation, either with reference to themselves or to a famous other (i.e., George Clooney or Oprah Winfrey). Both young and older adults showed memory benefits in the self-reference conditions compared to other-reference conditions on both tests, and the self-referential effects in older adults were not limited by low memory or executive functioning. These results suggest that self-reference can benefit relational memory in older adults relatively independently of basic memory and executive functions.