Metamemorial predictors of memory performance in young and older adults

The relationship between aspects of knowledge about memory and immediate and delayed recall on prose and word-list tasks was examined. Ss were 100 young and 100 older adults. Vocabulary ability was screened. Memory knowledge was assessed by the Metamemory in Adulthood (MIA) scale and the Short Inventory of Memory Experiences (SIME). Capacity and change measures of the MIA correlated with most dimensions of the SIME for both age groups. The anxiety measure of the MIA correlated with SIME measures only for the young. Regression analyses showed that strategy (MIA) predicted performance only for young adults, change (MIA) predicted performance only for older adults, and capacity (MIA) predicted performance for both age groups. Metamemory variables accounted for equivalent amounts of variance in both prose and word-list tasks, although there was an indication that prediction was slightly better for prose. Future researchers need to address the apparent increase in affect-related predictors of memory performance.     

Verbal knowledge, working memory, and processing speed as predictors of verbal learning in older adults

The present study aimed at modeling individual differences in a verbal learning task by means of a latent structured growth curve approach based on an exponential function that yielded 3 parameters: initial recall, learning rate, and asymptotic performance. Three cognitive variables-speed of information processing, verbal knowledge, working memory-and the participant's age were included in the model in order to explain individual differences in the learning parameters. The data come from the second wave of the Zurich Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging (D. Zimprich, Martin, et al., 2008) comprising 334 participants ranging in age from 66 to 81 years (M = 74.43, SD = 4.41). Among the logistic, the Gompertz, and the hyperbolic function, the exponential function described the data best. Reliable individual differences were found in all 3 learning parameters. The cognitive predictor variables affected the verbal learning parameters differentially: All 3 predictors affected positively initial recall, the asymptotic performance increased with better working memory and faster processing speed, and the learning rate was positively associated with verbal knowledge only. Age did not affect the learning parameters but correlated negatively with working memory and processing speed. The finding of large and reliable individual differences in learning is seen as evidence that the potential for positive change, or plasticity in adulthood is maintained and that it is worthwhile to enhance the determinants of learning or learning itself.     

Trial-and-error learning improves source memory among young and older adults

Trial-and-error learning, relative to errorless learning, has been shown to impair memory among older adults, despite evidence from young adults that errors may afford memorial benefits through richer encoding. However, previous studies on the effects of errorless versus trial-and-error learning in older adults has required production of errors based on perceptual cues. We hypothesized that producing errors conceptually associated with targets would boost memory for the encoding context in which information was studied, especially for older adults who do not spontaneously elaborate on targets at encoding. We report two studies examining the impact of generating errors during learning on source memory among young and older adults, with a process dissociation procedure employed in Study 1, and source memory assessed directly in Study 2. In both studies, participants were shown semantic category cues and generated an exemplar either with or without errors. In Study 1, for both age groups trial-and-error learning was associated with lower familiarity-based memory and higher recollection-based memory relative to errorless learning, and the latter effect was more marked for older than younger adults. Similarly, in Study 2, trial-and-error learning was associated with better source memory relative to errorless learning, particularly for the older adults. We argue that trial-and-error learning can enhance source memory and confer memorial benefits when making such errors facilitates semantic elaboration, especially for older adults who do not spontaneously engage in strategic encoding.     

Perceived self-efficacy domains as predictors of fear of the unknown and fear of dying among older adults

Using a sample of 167 women and 121 men, aged 65-87, this study tested the hypothesis that self-efficacy beliefs of older persons are significantly stronger predictors of death fears than are demographics, social support, and physical health variables used in earlier predictor models. Standard self-report measures were used to assess all predictor variables, including perceived self-efficacy in 8 different domains. Findings from a series of hierarchical regression analyses that were conducted separately for men and women supported the hypothesis concerning the superiority of self-efficacy variables as predictors of fear of the unknown after death and fear of dying, with spiritual health efficacy and instrumental efficacy being the most potent predictors of death fears for women and men, respectively.     

Personal investment predictors of life satisfaction among physically active middle-aged and older adults

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the social psychological components of personal investment and life satisfaction among 85 middle-aged and older men and women participating in a structured exercise program. Specifically, we examined the degree to which personal incentives for exercise, perceptions of a sense of self, and the congruency between the exercise program and the participants' goals, predicted life satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the social psychological variables reflecting personal investment accounted for 52% of the variance for life satisfaction in physically active middle-aged and older adults. The personal investment theory is supported as a framework for investigating psycho-social predictors of situational outcomes such as life satisfaction.     

Process and strategy in memory for speech among younger and older adults

Younger and older adults listened to and immediately recalled short passages of speech that varied in the rate of presentation and in the degree of linguistic and prosodic curing. Although older adults showed a differential decrease in recall performance as a function of increasing speech rate, age differences in recall were reduced by the presence of linguistic and prosodic cues. Under conditions of optimum linguistic redundancy, older adults were also found to add more words and to make more meaning-producing reconstructions in recall. Differences in overall performance are accounted for in terms of age-related changes in working memory processing and strategy utilization.     

Gender-linked differences in the incidental memory of children and adults

The hunter-gatherer theory (M. Eals & I. Silverman, 1994, Ethology and Sociobiology, 15, 95-105) predicts that females should have better incidental memory for objects and locations than males. We tested this prediction with 3- to 6-year-old children (Study 1) and adults (Study 2). In Study 1, 80 children were asked to recognize 18 gender-stereotyped toys which they had previously seen in a playroom for 2 min. In Study 2, 40 adults were asked to recall the identity and location of 30 gender-stereotyped objects which they had previously seen in an office for 2 min. Analyses in both studies indicated that females and males remembered more toys or objects congruent with their own sex but that there was no overall advantage for females. Implications for the hunter-gatherer theory, gender-schema theory, and our understanding of the development of incidental memory are discussed.     

Positive feelings facilitate working memory and complex decision making among older adults

The impact of induced mild positive feelings on working memory and complex decision making among older adults (aged 63–85) was examined. Participants completed a computer administered card task in which participants could win money if they chose from “gain” decks and lose money if they chose from “loss” decks. Individuals in the positive-feeling condition chose better than neutral-feeling participants and earned more money overall. Participants in the positive-feeling condition also demonstrated improved working-memory capacity. These effects of positive-feeling induction have implications for affect theory, as well as, potentially, practical implications for people of all ages dealing with complex decisions.     

Working memory as a predictor of verbal fluency

This study investigated whether working memory capacity could account for individual differences in verbal fluency. Working memory was assessed by the speaking span test (Daneman & Green, 1986) that taxes the processing and storage functions of working memory during sentence production. Verbal fluency was assessed by (1) a speech generation task in which subjects made a speech about a picture; (2) an oral reading task in which subjects read aloud a prose passage; and (3) a Baars, Motley, and MacKay (1975) task for eliciting oral slips of the tongue (e.g.,wet gun forget one). Speking span was significantly correlated with performance on all three tasks; individuals with small speaking spans were less fluent and more prone to making speech errors. Whereas speaking span was related to individual differences in verbal fluency on the speech and reading tasks, reading span, a measure included to assess working memory capacity during sentence comprehension, was only significantly related to individual differences in verbal fluency on the reading task. The methodology proved useful for revealing whether a particular kind of oral reading error reflected a reading failure or an articulatory failure.This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

Effects of context expectation on prospective memory performance among older and younger adults

This experiment examined the impact of context expectation on prospective memory (PM) performance among older and younger adults. Participants responded to PM target words embedded in an ongoing lexical decision task (LDT). Older and younger adults performed similarly on the PM task. Regardless of age, PM was significantly better for participants in the correct context expectation condition and significantly worse in the incorrect context expectation condition relative to participants who held no expectations about the context in which targets would appear. Participants’ LDT response latencies were used to assess cost of the PM task to the ongoing task. Latencies were discernibly longer in the LDT block where the PM targets were expected compared to the block where they were not expected. The findings provide new information about how context can be used to support PM aging and suggest that contextual information can be equally beneficial for older and younger adults.     

Heterogeneity in memory training improvement among older adults: A latent class analysis

This study investigated the extent to which older adults' associative memory functioning can be modified through instruction and practice based on individuals' memory status. Here 42 younger adults and 42 older adults performed four tasks that measured strategic and binding aspects of memory. With latent class analysis, two classes of older adults were identified. The first class showed higher memory functioning similar to younger adults, while the second class was characterised by lower memory functioning. A subsequent analysis examined whether the high- and low-performing older adults differ in patterns of gain from receiving instruction and practice on a mnemonic strategy. The results revealed that high-performing older adults, similar to younger adults, showed higher associative memory performance under explicit intentional encoding instruction and after extensive practice of the strategy. In contrast, low-performing older adults benefited more from directed instruction of the strategy. The results are discussed in relation to individual differences in the functional status of mechanisms underlying memory functioning, and how these differences may lead to compensation or magnification of training gain. The present findings highlight the importance of considering differential memory processes to develop specific training paradigms that target the processes that show the most prominent decline.     

Heterogeneity in memory training improvement among older adults: A latent class analysis

This study investigated the extent to which older adults' associative memory functioning can be modified through instruction and practice based on individuals' memory status. Here 42 younger adults and 42 older adults performed four tasks that measured strategic and binding aspects of memory. With latent class analysis, two classes of older adults were identified. The first class showed higher memory functioning similar to younger adults, while the second class was characterised by lower memory functioning. A subsequent analysis examined whether the high- and low-performing older adults differ in patterns of gain from receiving instruction and practice on a mnemonic strategy. The results revealed that high-performing older adults, similar to younger adults, showed higher associative memory performance under explicit intentional encoding instruction and after extensive practice of the strategy. In contrast, low-performing older adults benefited more from directed instruction of the strategy. The results are discussed in relation to individual differences in the functional status of mechanisms underlying memory functioning, and how these differences may lead to compensation or magnification of training gain. The present findings highlight the importance of considering differential memory processes to develop specific training paradigms that target the processes that show the most prominent decline.     

Alcohol use among older adults

Alcohol use problems among older adults have been called the "invisible epidemic." As the population of older adults continues to grow, there is an increased need to reexamine alcohol use in this population. The authors provide an overview on alcohol use in the over-60 age group. The main areas of focus included research on the prevalence of drinking in that population, as well as comments on the best practices in assessment and psychological treatment. Several screening assessments have been recommended for use with older adults, such as the CAGE questionnaire, Michigan Alcohol Screening Test-Geriatric version, Alcohol-Related Problems Survey, and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. The authors note age-appropriate psychological treatment interventions that include brief interventions, family interventions, motivational counseling, and cognitive behavioral therapies. Barriers to assessment and treatment are also discussed.     

Effects of goal-setting and feedback on memory performance and beliefs among older and younger adults

This research examined the impact of goal-setting conditions on memory beliefs and performance among older and younger adults. After baseline recall and assessment of beliefs, participants were assigned to goal-setting, goals plus feedback, or control. Then, additional recall trials were followed by repeated memory beliefs assessments. For both younger and older adults, performance, motivation, and self-efficacy were affected positively by goal-setting. The impact of goals plus feedback was mixed and varied as a function of age and dependent measure. Success rates for reaching memory goals, which were low for the older adults, may have been a factor in these results. Adults' self-set recall goals were predicted initially by baseline performance and self-efficacy. On the final trial, goals were predicted by last trial performance, self-efficacy, and control beliefs.     

Measuring experiential well-being among older adults

ABSTRACT

Experienced well-being measures tap a distinct form of subjective well-being (SWB) and have different age-related properties than the more widely studied evaluations of life satisfaction. Unlike evaluations of the quality of life as a whole, experiential measures capture affective reactions soon after they occur. Recent advances in measurement have allowed for the inclusion of such experiential measures even in large-scale studies. However, respondent burden remains a concern; hence, surveys have also employed shorter experiential modules. The psychometric properties of these brief measures are not well understood. We examine the psychometric characteristics, including the factor structure and correlations with theoretically relevant criteria, of experienced wellbeing measures included in two supplements to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The first supplement included a detailed time diary whereas the second included a brief review of the prior day. Results show that for the detailed time diaries a single index of affective experience provides a useful summary of the associations among individual affect items, both within and between participants. For the abbreviated method, two or more subscales better describe the underlying structure.     

Both young and older adults discount suggestions from older adults on a social memory test

In the present study, we examined the impacts of participant age and confederate age on social memory processes. During a collaborative recall phase, young and older adult participants were exposed to the erroneous memory reports of a young or an older adult confederate. On a subsequent individual recall test, young and older adult participants were equally likely to incorporate the confederates’ erroneous suggestions into their memory reports, suggesting that participant age had a minimal effect on social memory processes. However, confederate age did have a marked effect: Young adult participants were less likely to incorporate misleading suggestions from older adult confederates and less likely to report “remembering” items suggested by older adult confederates. Critically, older adult participants were also less likely to incorporate misleading information from fellow older adult confederates. Both young and older adult participants discounted older adult confederates’ contributions to a memory test.     

How scenes containing visual errors affect speech fluency in young and older adults

We compared young and older adults’ speech during an error detection task, with some pictures containing visual errors and anomalies and other pictures error-free. We analyzed three disfluency types: mid-phrase speech fillers (e.g., It’s a little, um, girl), repetitions (e.g., He’s trying to catch the- the birds), and repairs (e.g., She- you can see her legs). Older adults produced more mid-phrase fillers than young adults only when describing pictures containing errors. These often reflect word retrieval problems and represent clear disruptions to fluency, so this interaction indicates that the need to form and maintain representations of novel information can specifically compromise older adults’ speech fluency. Overall, older adults produced more repetitions and repairs than young adults, regardless of picture type, indicating general age-related increases in these disfluencies. The obtained patterns are discussed in the context of the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis and other approaches to age-related changes in speech fluency.