Enactment effects and integration processes in younger and older adults’ memory for actions

The present study investigates the mental processes that are applied to previously attended items of working memory. In an object-switching task, participants counted the number of sequentially presented objects. In Experiment 1 the processing time increased when the object category switched from the prior trial compared to a repetition. More importantly, the further in the past the last instance of a current category was presented, the more processing time was necessary—an observation suggesting passive decay rather than inhibition of previously attended items. However, results differed when only two object categories were employed. Experiment 2 suggests that the lack of a clear indication of decay with small numbers of categories was due to participants’ expectancy of category switches rather than repetitions. Taken together, the results suggest that working memory items become less accessible the longer they have not been attended to, when strategic processes are controlled.     

How does encoding context affect memory in younger and older adults?

How does encoding context affect memory? Participants studied visually presented words viewed concurrently with a rich (intact face) or weak (scrambled face) image as context and subsequently made “Remember”, “Know”, or “New” judgements to words presented alone. In Experiment 1a, younger, but not older, adults showed higher recollection accuracy to words from rich- than from weak-context encoding trials. The age-related deficit in recollection occurred, in Experiment 1b, even when encoding and retrieval time was doubled in older adults, suggesting that insufficient processing time cannot account for this age-related deficit. In Experiment 1c, dividing attention in young, during encoding, reduced overall memory, though the recollection boost from rich encoding contexts remained, suggesting that reduced attention resources cannot explain this age-related deficit. Experiment 2 showed that an own-age bias, to face images as context, could not explain the age-related differences either. Results suggest that age deficits in recollection stem from a lack of spontaneous binding, or elaboration, of context to target information during encoding.     

How does encoding context affect memory in younger and older adults?

How does encoding context affect memory? Participants studied visually presented words viewed concurrently with a rich (intact face) or weak (scrambled face) image as context and subsequently made "Remember", "Know", or "New" judgements to words presented alone. In Experiment 1a, younger, but not older, adults showed higher recollection accuracy to words from rich- than from weak-context encoding trials. The age-related deficit in recollection occurred, in Experiment 1b, even when encoding and retrieval time was doubled in older adults, suggesting that insufficient processing time cannot account for this age-related deficit. In Experiment 1c, dividing attention in young, during encoding, reduced overall memory, though the recollection boost from rich encoding contexts remained, suggesting that reduced attention resources cannot explain this age-related deficit. Experiment 2 showed that an own-age bias, to face images as context, could not explain the age-related differences either. Results suggest that age deficits in recollection stem from a lack of spontaneous binding, or elaboration, of context to target information during encoding.     

Destination memory in social interaction: better memory for older than for younger destinations in normal aging?

Destination memory, a memory component allowing the attribution of information to its appropriate receiver (e.g., to whom did I lend my pen?), is compromised in normal aging. The present paper investigated whether older adults might show better memory for older destinations than for younger destinations. This hypothesis is based on empirical research showing better memory for older faces than for younger faces in older adults. Forty-one older adults and 44 younger adults were asked to tell proverbs to older and younger destinations (i.e., coloured faces). On a later recognition test, participants had to decide whether they had previously told some proverb to an older/younger destination or not. Prior to this task, participants reported their frequency of contact with other-age groups. The results showed lower destination memory in older adults than in younger adults. Interestingly, older adults displayed better memory for older than for younger destinations. The opposite pattern was seen in younger adults. The low memory for younger destinations, as observed in older adults, was significantly correlated with limited exposure to younger individuals. These findings suggest that for older adults, the social experience can play a crucial role in the destination memory, at least as far as exposure to other-age groups is concerned.     

The interplay of intention maintenance and cue monitoring in younger and older adults’ prospective memory

The retention phase of a prospective memory (PM) task poses different challenges, including demands to store or maintain an intended action and to realize the right moment for action execution. The interplay of these processes in younger and older adults has not been explored so far. In this study, the authors examined the impact of maintenance load and task focality on PM in 84 younger and in 83 older adults. Results indicated that PM performance and ongoing task response times were strongly affected by maintenance load and age. However, a focality effect only emerged when maintenance load was low but not when attentional resources were deployed for maintaining a more demanding intention. These findings suggest that maintenance and monitoring requirements compete for similar attentional resources. Furthermore, maintenance load may affect postretrieval processes through its impact on working-memory resources, which can restrain the typical advantage of focal over nonfocal PM tasks.     

Does strategic memory training improve the working memory performance of younger and older adults?

The paper examines the effect of strategic training on the performance of younger and older adults in an immediate list-recall and a working memory task. The experimental groups of younger and older adults received three sessions of memory training, teaching the use of mental images to improve the memorization of word lists. In contrast, the control groups were not instructed to use any particular strategy, but they were requested to carry out the memory exercises. The results showed that strategic training improved performance of both the younger and older experimental groups in the immediate list recall and in the working memory task. Of particular interest, the improvement in working memory performance of the older experimental group was comparable to that of the younger experimental group.     

The effects of presentation rate and retention interval on memory for items and associations in younger adults: A simulation of older adults’ associative memory deficit

Older adults show an associative deficit in episodic memory compared to younger adults. Previous research suggests both strategic and automatic binding deficits contribute to older adults’ poorer memory performance. Using behavioral manipulations designed to affect strategic and automatic binding of associations, three experiments attempted to simulate an associative deficit in younger adults. In these experiments participants learned face-scene pairs and then were given item and associative recognition memory tests. We manipulated the time allotted at encoding and retrieval to simulate strategic deficits, and the length of the retention interval to simulate automatic deficits. Results indicate that both manipulations separately contribute to a differential decline in associative memory, similar to the one shown by older adults, especially as reflected in the differential increase in false alarm rate in the associative memory test more than in the item memory test. Considerations of possible underlying brain mechanisms are discussed.     

Memory for positive,negative and neutral events in younger and older adults: Does emotion influence binding in event memory?

When remembering an event, it is important to remember both the features of the event (e.g., a person and an action) and the connections among features (e.g., who performed which action). Emotion often enhances memory for stimulus features, but the relationship between emotion and the binding of features in memory is unclear. Younger and older adults attempted to remember events in which a person performed a negative, positive or neutral action. Memory for the action was enhanced by emotion, but emotion did not enhance the ability of participants to remember which person performed which action. Older adults were more likely than younger adults to make binding errors in which they incorrectly remembered a familiar actor performing a familiar action that had actually been performed by someone else, and this age-related associative deficit was found for both neutral and emotional actions. Emotion not only increased correct recognition of old events for older and younger adults but also increased false recognition of events in which a familiar actor performed a familiar action that had been performed by someone else. Thus, although emotion may enhance memory for the features of an event, it does not increase the accuracy of remembering who performed which action.     

Supporting older and younger adults’ memory for recent everyday events: A prospective sampling study using SenseCam

This study measured the effect of a wearable camera, SenseCam, on older and younger adults’ memories of recently experienced everyday events. Participants used SenseCam to prospectively sample events from a typical week, which they recalled two weeks later. Recall was cued by a self-generated title only (control condition), by the title and forward-order SenseCam images, or by the title and random-order SenseCam images. In the control condition, older and younger adults’ memories were comparably episodic, but older adults recalled more semantic details. Both forward- and random-order SenseCam images were associated with increased episodic and semantic recall in both groups, and there was a small but significant effect of temporal order favouring the forward-order condition. These findings suggest that SenseCam is effective in supporting retrieval of memory for recent events, and the results of the temporal order manipulation also shed light on the mechanism of SenseCam’s effect.     

Does a simultaneous memory load affect older and younger adults’ implicit associative learning?

This study investigated the effects of a simultaneous memory load on implicit associative sequence learning using the Triplets Learning Task (TLT). Participants in the Simultaneous condition held a secondary task memory load during the TLT, while those in the Sequential condition also performed both tasks, but successively, rather than simultaneously. Thus, the Simultaneous condition had a memory load during the TLT, while the Sequential condition did not. Probe blocks without the secondary task allowed separation of effects on learning from effects on its expression. Results revealed that the simultaneous memory load affected older, but not younger adults, by suppressing the expression of learning, not learning itself. Thus, older and younger adults can learn probabilistic associations while holding a simultaneous memory load, but the load can limit the extent to which older adults adapt their performance to environmental structure. Results are consistent with theories which propose that implicit associative learning does not call on limited capacity resources, and highlight the importance of distinguishing effects of dual tasks on the expression of learning from those on learning itself.     

The spacing effect in older and younger adults: does context matter?

Age-related memory change has been a topic of much investigation in recent years, including spacing benefits and reliance on contextual cues. We manipulated the spacing schedule and the context of learning and observed the effects on long-term recall ability in healthy older and younger adults. After learning Swahili–English word pairs, half practiced immediately (massed) and half practiced 24 h later (spaced) either in the same room or a different room (context) from the initial session. A final recall test 10 days after the practice session occurred in the same room as the first session. Participants in the spaced condition remembered more than those in the massed condition 10 days later. Younger adults remembered more word pairs than older adult participants. Context change eliminated the spacing benefit for both age groups.     

Younger and older adults’ associative memory for medication interactions of varying severity

While older adults face various deficits in binding items in memory, they are often able to remember information that is deemed important. In Experiment 1, we examined how younger and older adults remember medication interactions of varying severity. There were no age differences in overall memory accuracy, but older adults’ performance depended on the severity of the interactions (such that the interactions associated with the most severe health outcomes were remembered most accurately) while younger adults’ did not. In Experiment 2, a similar task was designed to create interference in memory. Even with this more difficult task there were no age differences in recall accuracy, and both age groups remembered the interactions with the severe outcomes most accurately. These findings suggest that, under certain circumstances, older adults do not face deficits in associative recognition accuracy of information that varies in importance.     

The role of feedback and dot presentation format in younger and older adults’ number estimation

Numerosity estimation, the rapid assessment of the number of items in a visual scene, is historically inaccurate. We assessed whether providing feedback regarding the correct numerosity on either 0%, 50%, or 100% of the trials would affect younger and older adults’ estimation accuracy for randomized, clustered (i.e., groups of 3 or 7 dots), and stacked (i.e., column) dot formats. Participants provided estimates and confidence ratings in six blocks, each containing 48 trials (16 numerosities shown in each format). Feedback frequency was manipulated between participants during blocks 1–4; no feedback was provided during blocks 5 and 6, which contained old and new numerosities and previously estimated presentations rotated 90°. Estimation accuracy was age equivalent across blocks despite younger adults initially being more accurate than older adults. Feedback improved both age groups’ accuracy. Stacked presentations were most accurately estimated but were more likely to be over-estimated than clustered and randomized presentations. Older adults gave lower confidence ratings than younger adults despite both age groups showing increased confidence across blocks, for more structured presentation formats, and as feedback frequency increased. These results expand our understanding of the role of presentation format and feedback in producing age equivalence or age-related differences in numerosity estimation.     

Is working memory necessary for implementation intentions to enhance prospective memory in older adults with cognitive problems?

Implementation intentions are an effective strategy for improving prospective memory in older adults. However, their efficacy has never been assessed in older individuals with cognitive problems (i.e., individuals with subjective memory complaints or objective memory impairments). Furthermore, although most authors consider implementation intentions to depend on automatic processes, some studies have shown the necessity of residual preserved controlled processes for implementation intentions to be efficient. We examined the efficacy of implementation intentions in prospective memory in 45 older participants consulting a memory clinic. Half of the participants were instructed to form an implementation intention, the other half receiving standard instructions. Analyses showed that working memory moderated the efficacy of implementation intentions, which were efficient only in individuals with better working memory. These results corroborate the claim that a minimal level of cognitive resources is required for the technique, although implementation intentions might depend principally on automatic processes.     

Training attentional control and working memory – Is younger,better?

Authors have argued that various forms of interventions may be more effective in younger children. Is cognitive training also more effective, the earlier the training is applied? We review evidence suggesting that functional neural networks, including those subserving attentional control, may be more unspecialised and undifferentiated earlier in development. We also discuss evidence suggesting that certain skills such as attentional control may be important as ‘hub’ cognitive domains, gating the subsequent acquisition of skills in other areas. Both of these factors suggest that attentional training administered to younger individuals ought to be relatively more effective in improving cognitive functioning across domains. We evaluate studies that have administered forms of cognitive training targeting various subcomponents of attention and the closely related domain of working memory, and we contrast their reported transfer to distal cognitive domains as a function of the age of the participants. Although negative findings continue to be common in this literature we find that cognitive training applied to younger individuals tends to lead to significantly more widespread transfer of training effects. We conclude that future work in this area should concentrate on understanding early intensive training, and discuss a number of practical steps that might help to achieve this aim.     

Modulating younger and older adults’ performance in ignoring pictorial information during a word matching task

Using both behavioural and event-related potential (ERP) data, the current study sought to examine the neurophysiological underpinnings for the effect of distracting pictorial information on semantic word matching performance in younger and older adults. This was tested in the context of semantic relations between task-relevant word pairs, a task-irrelevant picture and the resultant N400 differences in ERP. Younger and older adults were shown a context word superimposed on a to-be-ignored picture, followed by a test word. Their task was to determine whether the prime and test words were semantically related. The to-be-ignored pictures were interfering (for ‘No’ trials), facilitating (for ‘Yes’ trials), or neutral (for both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ trials) to the expected responses. The interfering and facilitatory effects of to-be-ignored pictures were assessed under more automatic and more controlled conditions by manipulating the context–test interstimulus-interval (ISI) as 50 ms and 1000 ms, respectively. The analysis of the N400 at centro-parietal sites during test word display revealed similar N400 amplitudes for the ‘No’ response trials at the two ISIs, suggesting that younger and older adults showed an equivalent effect from interfering pictures. In contrast, younger adults showed greater reductions in the N400, as compared to older adults, for ‘Yes’ trials indicating differential effects in facilitation from to-be-ignored pictorial information, but only in the long ISI condition. The data are discussed in terms of age differences in resource demanding strategy use during a semantic word matching task, specifically during controlled retrieval.     

The impact of emotional faces on younger and older adults’ attentional blink

ABSTRACT

The attentional blink (AB) is the impaired ability to detect a second target (T2) when it follows shortly after the first (T1) among distractors in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). Given questions about the automaticity of age differences in emotion processing, the current study examined whether emotion cues differentially impact the AB elicited in older and younger adults. Twenty-two younger (18–22 years) and 22 older adult participants (62–78 years) reported on the emotional content of target face stimulus pairs embedded in a RSVP of scrambled-face distractor images. Target pairs included photo-realistic faces of angry, happy, and neutral expressions. The order of emotional and neutral stimuli as T1 or T2 and the degree of temporal separation within the RSVP systematically varied. Target detection accuracy was used to operationalise the AB. Although older adults displayed a larger AB than younger adults, no age differences emerged in the impact of emotion on the AB. Angry T1 faces increased the AB of both age groups. Neither emotional T2 attenuated the AB. Negative facial expressions held the attention of younger and older adults in a comparable manner, exacerbating the AB and supporting a negativity bias instead of a positivity effect in older adults.     

The effects of emotion on younger and older adults’ monitoring of learning

Age-related differences in memory monitoring appear when people learn emotional words. Namely, younger adults’ judgments of learning (JOLs) are higher for positive than neutral words, whereas older adults’ JOLs do not discriminate between positive versus neutral words. In two experiments, we evaluated whether this age-related difference extends to learning positive versus neutral pictures. We also evaluated the contribution of two dimensions of emotion that may impact younger and older adults’ JOLs: valence and arousal. Younger and older adults studied pictures that were positive or neutral and either high or low in arousal. Participants made immediate JOLs and completed memory tests. In both experiments, the magnitude of older adults’ JOLs was influenced by emotion, and both younger and older adults demonstrated an emotional salience effect on JOLs. As important, the magnitude of participants’ JOLs was influenced by valence, and not arousal. Emotional salience effects were also evident on participants’ free recall, and older adults recalled as many pictures as did younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that older adults do not have a monitoring deficit when learning positive (vs. neutral) pictures and that emotional salience effects on younger and older adults’ JOLs are produced more by valence than by arousal.