Age-related differences in the von restorff isolation effect

When one item is made distinct from the other items in a list, memory for the distinctive item is improved, a finding known as the isolation or von Restorff effect (after von Restorff, 1933). Although demonstrated numerous times with younger adults and children, this effect has not been found with older adults (Cimbalo & Brink, 1982). In contrast to the earlier study, we obtained a significant von Restorff effect for both younger and older adults using a physical manipulation of font colour. The effect size for older adults was smaller than that obtained for younger adults, confirming a prediction of Naveh-Benjamin's (2000) associative deficit hypothesis, which attributes age-related differences in memory performance to older adults' reduced ability to form associations. The findings are consistent with related research in which older adults demonstrate similar—but smaller—benefits for distinctive information to those for younger adults.     

Age-related differences in guessing on free and forced recall tests

This study examined possible age-related differences in recall, guessing, and metacognition on free recall tests and forced recall tests. Participants studied categorised and unrelated word lists and were asked to recall the items under one of the following test conditions: standard free recall, free recall with a penalty for guessing, free recall with no penalty for guessing, or forced recall. The results demonstrated interesting age differences regarding the impact of liberal test instructions (i.e., forced recall and no penalty) relative to more conservative test instructions (i.e., standard free recall and penalty) on memory performance. Specifically, once guessing was controlled, younger adults’ recall of categorised lists varied in accordance with test instructions while older adults’ recall of categorised lists did not differ between conservative and liberal test instructions, presumably because older adults approach standard free recall tests of categorised lists with a greater propensity towards guessing than young adults.     

Age-related associative deficits and the isolation effect

ABSTRACT

If all but one of the items in a list are similar (e.g., all black except one red), memory for the different item is enhanced (the isolation effect). Older adults generally show similar or smaller isolation effects compared to young adults, which has been attributed to age-related deficits in associative memory whereby older adults are less able to associate an isolated stimulus to its isolating feature. Experiment 1 examined the isolation effect for isolation based on spatial position, modality and color; in Experiment 2, the criterion for isolation was the associative relation between stimuli. The results consistently showed no differences between young and older participants in the magnitude of the isolation effect. Whilst age deficits in associative memory may act to reduce the isolation effect in older adults, age deficits in self-initiated processing and inhibitory functionality may counteract this reduction by enhancing the isolation effect in older adults.     

Age-related differences in episodic feeling-of-knowing arise from differences in memory performance

Previous studies about the effects of ageing on the episodic feeling-of-knowing (FOK) accuracy and its underlying processes have yielded conflicting results. Recent work suggests that using alternative measures to gamma correlations might allow more accurate and informative interpretations of metamemory performance in ageing. We therefore investigated this issue with a large sample of 59 young and 61 older participants using alternative signal-detection theory (SDT) measures. These measures (receiver operating characteristic curves and Brier score) are recommended in the literature and able to reveal the characteristic profile of impairment in ageing. Our results suggest that the FOK accuracy deficit observed in the literature arises from differences in memory performance. This observation provides a convenient explanation to the previous discrepancies and furthermore supports the interest of the use of SDT-derived measures in the frame of metamemory.     

Age-related differences in the elderly in a spatial recognition task

ABSTRACT

Spatial memory is a cognitive ability which declines with ageing thus showing changes in some process such as the use of allocentric strategies. These age-related changes in spatial orientation suggest that this skill could be an adequate marker of cognitive decline. Many tasks used in investigation to assess spatial memory demand a participant’s active role, which involves that the navigational experience is different for everyone. In this study, the Almeria Spatial Memory Recognition Test (ASMRT), a test based on a recognition paradigm, was used to offer the same experience with the environment. The aim of this research was to determine if the ASMRT is suitable to be applied in the elderly and detect spatial memory differences as one age. The ASMRT and other neuropsychological tests were applied in a sample aged between 50and 79 years. Results revealed a decrease in the ASMRT performance by the older group. No gender differences were found. Performance in attention and visuospatial working memory tests revealed some correlations with the ASMRT performance. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that 70–79-year-old participants clearly show age-related changes in spatial memory. Thanks to its simplicity the ASMRT could be used as a screening test in medical practice.     

Long-term effects of testing on the recall of nontested materials

The isolation paradigm is a staple in the study of distinctiveness and memory. Isolated items are better remembered than non-isolated controls, and the standard interpretation of this effect is that subjective experience of salience recruits extraordinary processing to the isolated item. This interpretation is at odds with data showing an isolation effect when the isolate is not perceived as salient (e.g., von Restorff, 1933). All available research on the early isolation effect has tested memory after a relatively short retention interval. Perhaps the effect of salience on memory in the isolation paradigm would be revealed following longer retention intervals. The experiment reported here examines the effect of isolation following a 48-hour retention interval when the isolate evokes an experience of salience compared to when the isolate does not evoke that reaction. The isolation effect was substantial after the 48-hour delay but equally so for early and late isolation. Salience appears to have nothing to do with the memory processes even at the longer retention intervals.     

Age-related similarities and differences in first impressions of trustworthiness

Trust is a particularly under-studied aspect of social relationships in older age. In the current study, young (n = 35) and older adults (n = 35) completed a series of one-shot social economic trust games in which they invested real money with trustees. There were potential gains with each investment and also a risk of losing everything if the trustee was untrustworthy. The reputation and facial appearance of each trustee were manipulated to make them appear more or less trustworthy. Results revealed that young and older adults invest more money with trustees whose facial appearance and reputation indicate that they are trustworthy rather than untrustworthy. However, older adults were more likely than young to invest with trustees who had a reputation for being untrustworthy. We discuss whether age-related differences in responding to negative information may account for an age-related increase in trust, particularly when trusting someone with a reputation for being uncooperative.     

Adult age differences in memory for distinctive information: Evidence from the bizarreness effect

Two experiments examined age-related differences in memory for bizarre and common pictures. In Experiment 1, a facilitative effect of bizarreness was obtained for young adults and one of the older groups, but not for the oldest group (over age 70). However, the bizarreness effect was found for even the oldest group when predominantly common lists were used in Experiment 2. It is concluded that older adults suffer from deficits in distinctive processing, but those deficits can be reduced by providing a more uniformly common context in which differences can be processed.     

Age-related differences in the distractor previewing effect with schematic faces of emotions

Young and older adults searched for a unique face in a set of three schematic faces and identified a secondary feature of the target. The faces could be negative, positive, or neutral. Young adults were slower and less accurate in searching for a negative face among neutral faces when they had previewed a display of negative faces than when they had previewed neutral faces, indicating an emotional distractor previewing effect (DPE), but this effect was eliminated with inverted faces. The DPE is an index of inter-trial inhibition to keep attention away from previewed, non-target information. Older adults also showed such an emotional DPE, but it was present with both upright and inverted faces. These results show that, in general, both young and old participants are sensitive to trial history, yet the different patterns of results suggest that these two groups remember and use different types of perceptual information when searching through emotional faces.     

Aging,imagery, and the bizarreness effect

ABSTRACT

This study examined the bizarre imagery effect in young and older adults, under incidental and intentional conditions. Intentionality was manipulated across experiments, with participants receiving an incidental free recall test in Experiment 1 and an intentional test in Experiment 2. This study also examined the relation between working memory resources and the bizarreness effect. In Experiment 1 young and older adults were presented with common and bizarre sentences; they later received an incidental recall test. There were no age differences in sensitivity to the bizarreness effect in Experiment 1 when ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. However, when the bizarreness effect was examined in terms of effect size, there was evidence that younger adults produced larger bizarreness effect sizes than younger adults. Experiment 2 further explored age differences in sensitivity to the bizarreness effect by presenting young and older adults with bizarre and common sentences under intentional learning conditions. Experiment 2 failed to yield age differences as a function of item type (bizarre vs. common). In addition, Experiment 2 failed to yield significant evidence that the bizarreness effect is modulated by working memory resources. The results of this study are most consistent with the distinctiveness account of the bizarreness effect.     

Age-related differences in time-based prospective memory: The role of time estimation in the clock monitoring strategy

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) is required when it is necessary to remember to perform an action at a specific future point in time. This type of memory has been found to be particularly sensitive to ageing, probably because it requires a self-initiated response at a specific time. In this study, we sought to examine the involvement of temporal processes in the time monitoring strategy, which has been demonstrated to be a decisive factor in TBPM efficiency. We compared the performance of young and older adults in a TBPM task in which they had to press a response button every minute while categorising words. The design allowed participants to monitor time by checking a clock whenever they decided. Participants also completed a classic time-production task and several executive tasks assessing inhibition, updating and shifting processes. Our results confirm an age-related lack of accuracy in prospective memory performance, which seems to be related to a deficient strategic use of time monitoring. This could in turn be partially explained by age-related temporal deficits, as evidenced in the duration production task. These findings suggest that studies designed to investigate the age effect in TBPM tasks should consider the contribution of temporal mechanisms.     

A motor isolation effect: When object manipulability modulates recall performance

Previous studies suggested that the language production architecture is recruited during verbal retention, and others proposed that spatial memory relies on the oculomotor system. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of the motor system in object memory, by examining the effect of objects' affordances on retention. In a serial recall task, we manipulated the manipulability of objects to retain in memory. We used an isolation paradigm where we isolated the manipulability level of one object from the list. We showed that recall performance improved for the isolated object (Experiment 1) and that this advantage was abolished when participants were required to perform motor suppression during the task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, we showed that the abolition of the motor isolation effect in Experiment 2 was not due to an effect of distraction since motor suppression was shown not to interfere with a semantic isolation effect. It is argued that motor affordances play a role in object memory, but only when the motor characteristics of an object allow discriminating it from the other objects in the list.     

Remembered study mode: Support for the distinctiveness account of the production effect

The production effect is the finding that words spoken aloud at study are subsequently remembered better than are words read silently at study. According to the distinctiveness account, aloud words are remembered better because the act of speaking those words aloud is encoded and later recovery of this information can be used to infer that those words were studied. An alternative account (the strength-based account) is that memory strength is simply greater for words read aloud. To discriminate these two accounts, we investigated study mode judgements (i.e., “aloud”/”silent”/”new” ratings): The strength-based account predicts that “aloud” responses should positively correlate with memory strength, whereas the distinctiveness account predicts that accuracy of study mode judgements will be independent of memory strength. Across three experiments, where the strength of some silent words was increased by repetition, study mode was discriminable regardless of strength—even when the strength of aloud and repeated silent items was equivalent. Consistent with the distinctiveness account, we conclude that memory for “aloudness” is independent of memory strength and a likely candidate to explain the production effect.     

Self-generation amplifies the errorless learning effect in healthy older adults when transfer appropriate processing conditions are met

ABSTRACT

Older adults have considerable impairment in associative recognition despite minimal age differences in item recognition. The magnitude of this associative deficit varies by type of stimuli, strategy utilization, and other mediators and moderators (Old &; Naveh-Benjamin, 2008 Old, S. R., &; Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2008). Differential effects of age on item and associative measures of memory: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 23, 104–118. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.23.1.104[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Psychology and Aging, 23, 104–118). Name pair stimuli have not been used to test the associative deficit hypothesis (ADH), although tests using name–face stimuli support the ADH. Additionally, metacognitive awareness of the ADH has not been investigated. We tested the ADH with word and name pair stimuli, and predicted that age-related associative deficits would be larger for words than names because names, unlike most common nouns, lack certain semantic properties that could be used to bind pairs of names together. Results supported the ADH for words but not names: Younger and older adults recognized equivalently fewer names on the associative test relative to the item test. As predicted, self-efficacy was higher for younger than older adults. Surprisingly, self-efficacy for the associative test was higher than for the item test but post-test estimates of performance success (postdictions) were higher for the item test than for the associative test, suggesting sensitivity by participants to different task demands in the item and associative tests following recognition attempts. Metacognitive accuracy was better for words than names and for the item test than associative test, and equivalent between age groups. Overall, participants overestimated their name recognition abilities. Our findings extend support for the ADH to a conceptually important and ecologically valid domain (names) and provide new data on metacognitive aspects of the ADH.     

Auditioning the distinctiveness account: Expanding the production effect to the auditory modality reveals the superiority of writing over vocalising

The production effect (PE) documents the advantage in memory performance for words that are read aloud during study, rather than words that are read silently. Until now, the PE was examined in the visual modality, as the participants read the study words. In the present study, we extended the PE phenomenon and used the auditory modality at study. This novel methodology provides a critical test of the distinctiveness account. Accordingly, the participants heard the study words and learned them by vocal production (saying aloud) or by writing, followed by a free recall test. The use of the auditory modality yielded a memory advantage for words that were written during study over words that were vocally produced. We explain this result in light of the encoding distinctiveness account, suggesting that the PE is determined by the number of different encoding processes involved in learning, emphasising the essential role of active production.     

Age-related differences in attentional bias for emotional faces

Past research suggests an aging-related positivity effect in orienting to faces. However, these studies have eschewed direct comparison of orienting when positive and negative faces are presented simultaneously, thereby potentially underestimating the degree to which emotional valence influences such effects. In the current study younger and older adults viewed face pairs for 1000 ms, and upon face-pair offset indicated the location of a dot that appeared in the former location of one of the faces, to assess attentional orienting. When shown negative–neutral pairs, both age groups were biased to attend to negative faces, but when shown positive–negative pairs only younger adults showed a bias toward negative; older adults showed a lack of orienting toward either emotional face. Results suggest younger adults have a negativity bias in attention orienting regardless of the valence of nearby stimuli, whereas older adults show an absence of this bias when positive information is present.     

Transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect

The testing effect is the finding that taking a review test enhances performance on a final test relative to restudying the material. The present experiment investigated transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect using semantic and orthographic cues to evoke conceptual and data-driven processing, respectively. After a study phase, subjects either restudied the material or took a cued-recall test consisting of half semantic and half orthographic cues in which the correct response was given as feedback. A final, cued-recall test consisted of the identical cue, or a new cue that was of the same type or different type of cue (semantic/orthographic or orthographic/semantic) as that used for that target in the review test. Testing enhanced memory in all conditions. When the review cues and final-test cues were identical, final recall was higher for semantic than orthographic cues. Consistent with test-based transfer-appropriate processing, memory performance improved as the review and final cues became more similar. These results suggest that the testing effect could potentially be caused by the episodic retrieval processes in a final memory test overlapping more with the episodic retrieval processes in a review test than with the encoding operations performed during restudy.