Working memory in the oldest-old: evidence from output serial position curves |
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Authors: | Emily M Elliott Katie E Cherry Jennifer Silva Brown Emily A Smitherman S Michal Jazwinski Qingzhao Yu Julia Volaufova |
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Institution: | (1) Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;(2) Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA;(3) Louisiana State University Health Science Center for the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study, New Orleans, LA, USA;(4) Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803–5501, USA |
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Abstract: | In the present study, we examined adult age differences in short-term and working memory performance in middle-aged (45–64 years),
young–old (65–74 years), old–old (75–89 years), and oldest–old adults (90 years and over) in the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study.
Previous research suggests that measures of working memory are more sensitive to age effects than are simple tests of short-term
memory Bopp and Verhaeghen (Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 60:223–233, 2005), Myerson, Emery, White, and Hale, (Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition 10:20–27, 2003). To test this hypothesis, we examined output serial position curves of recall data from three span tasks: forward and backward
digit span and size judgment span. Participants’ recall patterns in the size judgment span task revealed that the two oldest
groups of adults showed the largest decreases in recall performance across output serial positions, but did not differ significantly
from each other. Correlation analyses indicated the strongest negative correlation with age occurred with the size judgment
span task. Implications of these findings for understanding strategic processing abilities in late life are discussed. |
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