Differential memory changes with age: Exact retrieval versus plausible inference.

Conducted 2 experiments on the use of direct retrieval and plausibility memory strategies in elderly and college-age adults. In Exp I, which used an episodic memory task, data were obtained from 49 65–80 yr old college alumni and from 58 college students who had served in a previous study by the 1st author (see record 1983-02731-001). Findings indicate that older Ss effectively used the plausibility strategy but performed more poorly than younger Ss when the direct retrieval strategy was required. Results of Exp II, using 18 college alumni (8 Ss aged 20–31 yrs, 10 Ss aged 64–75 yrs) with a semantic memory task, show that older Ss' accuracy was essentially undistinguishable from that of younger Ss as long as a plausibility judgment process produced the correct response. It is argued that careful inspection is a much more costly process for older adults than it is for young adults but that plausibility judgments and feature overlap processes are equally easy for both age groups. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic spatial memory in adulthood.

Two experiments examined age-related differences in memory for spatial location information in a museum exhibit (Exp 1) and in a secretarial office (Exp 2). In Exp 1, Ss were the visitors to the exhibit (N?=?302, 15–74 yrs of age), and memory was assessed using a map test. In Exp 2, Ss were 64 young adults (M?=?21.2 yrs) and 32 older adults (M?=?71.2 yrs), and memory was assessed using both a map test and a relocation test. The relocation test required Ss to replace the to-be-remembered targets where they appeared at study. Exp 1 showed an age-related decline in spatial memory performance, and it placed the onset of this decline in the 6th decade of life. Exp 2 showed an age-related decline on both tests, but age effects were smaller on the relocation test than on the map test, and when Ss knew that spatial memory would be tested than when they were not informed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of adult age on primary and secondary memory search.

Conducted 2 experiments with 25 19–29 yr olds, 26 62–85 yr olds, 30 18–32 yr olds, and 30 61–81 yr olds to compare young and elderly adults on the ability to search lists of words stored in primary memory (PM) and in secondary memory (SM). Exp I indicated that age differences in search performance were greatest under SM conditions. Older Ss, unlike the younger ones, appeared biased toward responding that probe items were not members of the memory sets stored in SM. As a result of this apparent bias, older Ss committed a large number of errors on trials in which the probe was a member of the memorized list (i.e., positive probe trials) yet few errors on the trials in which the probe was not a member of the list ( i.e., negative probe trials). The responses of older Ss to negative probe trials were more rapid than were those to positive probe trials. In Exp II, this pattern of responding was examined. It is concluded that age differences were involved in the ability to encode memory sets and transfer them from PM to SM as well as in the ability to retrieve information from SM prior to conducting a memory search. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accounting for age differences on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: Decreased working memory, not inflexibility.

Two experiments examined the role of cognitive inflexibility and reduced working memory in age-related declines on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Ss for the first experiment were 85 younger adults (mean age 19.7 yrs) and 76 older adults (mean age 70.3 yrs). For the second experiment, Ss were 48 younger and 48 older adults (mean ages 20.3 yrs and 69.8 yrs, respectively). Both standard scoring procedures and newly developed scores were used to measure each construct, and modifications of the test further evaluated the role of working memory. Results indicated that age differences are not due to cognitive inflexibility but that for a subset of older adults errors are associated with a reduction in the amount of information that can be stored or processed in working memory. These age differences disappear, however, when visual cues provide information about the immediately preceding sort. The authors conclude by proposing a decline in updating working memory as the explanation that can best account for the entire pattern of age differences on this test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific exemplar retention and prototype abstraction in young and old adults.

Examined the effects of age differences in retention of information about specific concept members on 40 older adults' (mean age 72.3 yrs) and 40 younger adults' (mean age 20.6 yrs) ability to abstract central tendency information. The mean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R) Vocabulary scaled score for the young adults was significantly lower than that of the older adults. Ss were presented with a series of visual patterns that were organized around a prototype and were then presented with these same patterns plus a set of new patterns varying in prototype similarity in a recognition test. It was found that young Ss retained more information about specific acquisition set exemplars, which resulted in slightly different recognition responses for new patterns. However, the recognition behavior of both young and older Ss appeared to be governed by the same rules. It is suggested that the organization of conceptual information does not change with age but that the poorer retention of specific item information in older adults may result in a less complete representation. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orienting tasks as moderators of narrative and expository text recall in adulthood.

Incidental narrative and expository prose memory of 60 older adults (mean age 71.6 yrs) and 60 younger adults (mean age 23.6 yrs) was assessed following orienting tasks that emphasized either relational (sentence scrambling) or individual proposition (letter deletion) information or following a control condition. Orienting tasks were done capably, but older adults took longer and made more errors on the letter-deletion task than did younger adults. Age differences in recall were observed consistently for expository texts, but for narrative texts, age differences in recall were observed only when letters were deleted. If orienting tasks overtax older adults' processing resources or emphasize shallow information, recall gains may be minimal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical ambiguity and children's word recognition.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine the word recognition processes of 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders. In Exp I, 72 Ss named target words that were primed by words that had more than 1 meaning. Targets were related either to the more or less frequent sense of the ambiguous prime or were unrelated to it. Findings indicate that older Ss were more likely than younger Ss to restrict processing of ambiguous words to the most frequent meaning. While younger Ss showed approximately equal facilitation for words related to either meaning, regardless of each one's relative frequency, 6th graders apparently retrieved only the most frequent meaning. Exp II, with 36 Ss, was similar to Exp I but included neutral primes and varied the interval between presentation of prime and target. Results show that all groups showed automatic retrieval of both meanings of the ambiguous word. For 6th graders, however, this retrieval was followed by a 2nd stage, in which attention was allocated to the more frequent meaning, maintaining it, while the less frequent meaning was inhibited. Overall data indicate that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic activation and episodic memory: Age similarities and differences.

In 2 experiments, 48 19–35 yr olds and 48 59–75 yr olds were engaged in semantic and nonsemantic orienting tasks and were subsequently given incidental or expected recall and recognition tasks. Reaction time (RT) patterns from the orienting tasks suggested that all Ss experienced similar semantic activation during encoding. Under incidental conditions, age differences in memory performance were minimal. When memory tests were expected, younger Ss recalled and recognized more items than did older Ss, suggesting that younger Ss were more effective in their deployment of mnemonic strategies. The age difference was particularly pronounced for unattended items, which suggests an age difference in the capacity to encode all of the episodic information. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in recognition memory: Effects of materials and context change.

The study explored age-related differences in the effects of context change on recognition memory by presenting object names (Expt. 1A) or their pictures (Expt. 1B) on background scenes. Participants later attempted to recognize previously presented items on background scenes that were original, switched, blank, or new. Older adults recognized fewer word stimuli than did younger adults, and context effects were larger for older adults. With pictures, however, the age-related decrement was eliminated and context effects were reduced. The beneficial effect of context reinstatement in older adults occurs despite the finding that they are less able to recall or recognize such contexts (Experiment 2). Older adults can use context information in recognition memory at least as efficiently as younger adults when suitable materials and conditions are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nursery rhymes and prose passages: Preschoolers' liking and short-term retention of story events.

In Exps I–IV, 128 3–5 yr old preschoolers listened to stories told in either prose or verse form and then answered recognition or recall questions about each narrative's content. Ss also indicated their liking of the story on a 3-point scale. Even though Ss reported liking stories better in verse than in prose form, results demonstrate that Ss' overall short-term retention of story events was significantly higher for prose than for verse presentations. Although 40 college students in Exp V showed higher recall of the rhyming than prose passages, no overall facilitation for rhyme was found with preschoolers, even when recognition of only the rhyming facets of a narration was tested. Results are discussed in terms of a levels-of-processing approach to memory functioning. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in recognition memory for pictures of objects and scenes.

Investigated recognition memory for pictures, using photographs that showed either single objects or multi-object scenes and distractors that differed from targets in that an element had been added, an original element moved, or the vantage point changed. In Exp I, Ss included 24 6-yr-olds, 24 9-yr-olds, and 24 adults from the US; in Exp II Ss included the same age groups but from an Indian village in Guatemala. Results indicate that addition transformations were easier to recognize than rearrangements at all ages in the US but not in Guatemala. Objects were easier to recognize than scenes in both cultures. Contrary to recent claims, the present results show that recognition memory improved with age for both cultures. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for pictures: Does an age-related decline exist?

Examined the effects of varying detail on memory. In Exp I, pictorial embellishment was varied by presenting 27 Ss aged 60+ yrs and 30 undergraduates with normal photographs, high-contrast photographs, or line drawings, and testing their memory immediately and 4 wks later. All of the Ss did best with the most elaborate pictures (normal photographs), and old Ss remembered as well as young at the immediate but not at the delayed interval. In Exp II, with 21 old Ss and 21 18–36 yr olds, detail was varied by adding background to line drawings of a central object. Ss of both ages profited from enhanced background detail, and there were no differences in memory as a function of age. Exp III replicated Exp II, except that Ss (10 elderly and 17 college students) studied the pictures under divided attention conditions. Again, Ss of both ages recognized elaborate pictures best, and no significant age differences emerged. Results suggest that old and young adults profit from visual embellishment and that memory for meaningful pictures remains relatively intact with age. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic activation and episodic odor recognition in young and older adults.

Young, young–old, and old adults were examined in immediate and delayed episodic recognition of common odors. Items were presented in 3 different formats: name-only, odor-only, or odor-name. Ss made familiarity ratings for all items at study. In the delayed recognition test, Ss were asked to name the odors. Young Ss outperformed the 2 older age groups in both recognition tests, although the 2 older groups did not differ. Performance was higher in the odor-name condition than in the single-format conditions. Both familiarity and naming were related to recognition in all age groups. Most important, when naming was statistically controlled, age differences in odor recognition disappeared, suggesting that access to verbal labels largely determine age differences in recognition of common odors. Finally, the finding that recognition was enhanced in both young and older Ss in the odor-name condition suggests that odor memory may involve a similar degree of plasticity as other varieties of episodic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-modal transfer in 6-month-old infants.

Investigated in 4 studies with 101 infants 25.5–32 wks of age the ability of Ss to transfer information about shape across modalities. Ss were familiarized either orally or tactually and then tested for visual recognition memory. In Exp I, Ss failed to show evidence of cross-modal transfer on any of the tasks (1 oral–visual, 2 tactual–visual). When familiarization times were increased from 30 to 60 sec in Exp II, Ss showed evidence of transfer on both tactual–visual tasks. Exp III eliminated the 5–7 sec delay that generally intervenes between the familiarization and test phase. Ss were permitted to retain the stimulus in their hand (or mouth) during the test phase while simultaneously viewing a novel stimulus and a duplicate of the familiar stimulus. This modification resulted in successful transfer on 1 of the 2 tactual–visual tasks. Ss did not show evidence of transfer on the oral–visual problem in any of these studies, despite evidence from Exp IV that they could visually discriminate the paired stimuli used in these tasks and that they showed recognition memory when familiarization and testing were both visual. Results suggest that, although cross-modal transfer of information about shape is present among 6-mo-olds, it is a less robust phenomenon than that seen in older infants. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit processing in the cued recall of young and old adults.

Reports 2 cued recall experiments in which younger and older Ss studied target words varying in number of preexperimental associates. In Exp 1, targets were studied in either the absence or presence of meaning-related context cues, with recall always prompted by the cues. In the absence of context, words with smaller sets of associates were easier to recall than those with larger sets, but this effect was reduced for older Ss. The presence of a study context cue facilitated recall and eliminated the effect of associative set size for both ages. In Exp 2, targets were studied and tested in the presence of unrelated words. In this situation, words with smaller sets of associates were less likely to be recalled than words with larger sets; again the effect was reduced for older Ss. The results are interpreted as an age decrement in processing implicitly activated information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The recognition of visual configuration and identity information by children and adults.

The tendency to rely on and the ability to remember configuration and identity information were examined in Exp I with 24 kindergartners, 3rd, and 6th graders, and paid graduate students and university employees. Ss saw, tachistoscopically, arrays of 4 Hebrew letters and, in one condition, made recognition choices between 2 incorrect arrays, one of which differed from the stimulus by items and the other by configuration. In 2 other conditions in which accurate response was permitted, ability to use configuration and item information independently was tested. All Ss tended to rely more on configuration than on identity information and were better able to use configuration than identity information. In a 2nd experiment with 19 Ss from the same age-groups as Exp I, it was established that the items could be remembered under explicit instructions to remember items and ignore configuration. By altering the configuration of items it was possible to produce item recognition decrements in younger, but not older, Ss. It is concluded that development aids visual processing, particularly through a functional integration of systems for handling identity and spatial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and emotional memory: Cognitive mechanisms underlying the positivity effect.

Younger adults tend to remember negative information better than positive or neutral information (negativity bias). The negativity bias is reduced in aging, with older adults occasionally exhibiting superior memory for positive, as opposed to negative or neutral, information (positivity bias). Two experiments with younger (N = 24 in Experiment 1, N = 25 in Experiment 2; age range: 18?35 years) and older adults (N = 24 in both experiments; age range: 60?85 years) investigated the cognitive mechanisms responsible for age-related differences in recognition memory for emotional information. Results from diffusion model analyses (R. Ratcliff, 1978) indicated that the effects of valence on response bias were similar in both age groups but that Age × Valence interactions emerged in memory retrieval. Specifically, older adults experienced greater overall familiarity for positive items than younger adults. We interpret this finding in terms of an age-related increase in the accessibility of positive information in long-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in organization and recall: Training in the use of organizational techniques.

Used an alternating sort-recall procedure in 3 experiments to train 204 elementary school children in the use of organizational techniques as memory aids. All Ss sorted a group of words into 2–7 categories, and some Ss were required to learn the sorting patterns generated by adults. In Exp I, the semantic sophistication of a S's sorting style predicted recall performance. Further, the tendency to improve memory performance as a result of being constrained to adult sorting patterns varied with age; constrained 5th graders significantly improved their recall, whereas the recall of 3rd and 7th grade Ss was not affected by this training. However, more detailed organizational training in Exp II facilitated the recall of 3rd graders. In Exp II, it was found that the constraining procedure was not necessary for facilitation to be observed. Rather, instructions to group words on the basis of meaning were sufficient to produce improved recall. Further, improvements in sorting style accompanied all significant changes in recall. Findings are discussed in terms of a discrepancy between the information which a child has in permanent memory and that which he uses spontaneously in the context of a memorization task. The importance of input organization as a mediating factor in memory performance and development is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young and older adults' use of context in spatial memory.

We evaluated the hypothesis that older adults remember spatial information less well than younger adults because they use contextual information less effectively. Young and older adults studied schematic town maps on which structures were presented either simultaneously or successively and on which a network of streets was either present or absent. However, age did not interact with either contextual variable. Thus, we conclude that age differences in spatial memory do not arise from differences in the use of context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)