Aging and recollection in the accuracy of judgments of learning.

Dual-process theories propose that episodic memory performance reflects both recollection of prior details as well as more automatic influences of the past. The authors explored the idea that recollection mediates the accuracy of judgments of learning (JOLs) and may also help explain age differences in JOL accuracy. Young and older adults made immediate JOLs at study and then completed recognition or recall tests that included a recollect/familiar judgment. JOLs were found to be strongly related to recollected items but not to items remembered on the basis of familiarity. The pattern was weaker in older adults, consistent with age-related declines in recollection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in visual search accuracy: Attentional guidance and target detectability.

Previous research, relying primarily on reaction time measures of highly accurate performance, suggests that both younger and older adults can increase the efficiency of visual search by guiding attention to a candidate subset of items. The authors investigated attentional guidance when accuracy was well below ceiling to focus more specifically on the role of perceptual processes. In the most difficult condition (conjunction search), the likelihood of missing a target was greater for older adults than for younger adults, and this effect was not attributable entirely to generalized slowing. Both age groups were able to improve search efficiency by attending to a distinct subset of display items, indicating that attentional guidance to perceptual features does not exhibit age-related decline. A signal-detection model of the conjunction search data demonstrated that the age difference represented an age-related decline in target detectability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in recall of performed and nonperformed items.

Memory for performed cognitive activities (e.g., psychometric tests of intelligence), for performed brief actions (e.g., hand wave), and for nonperformed items (e.g., written words) was assessed for 102 older and 101 younger adults. Although enactment improved recall, the beneficial effects of enactment were the same for both age groups. In fact, more than 80% of the age-related variance in memory for performed items was shared with memory for nonperformed items. Working memory and perceptual speed were important to the age differences in memory for both types of items. Performed and nonperformed items showed different serial position effects. However, the correlation between memory for the 2 types of items was high, especially for older adults, suggesting that the 2 types of memory share many common processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related associative deficits are absent with nonwords.

Words and nonwords were used as stimuli to assess item and associative recognition memory performance in young and older adults. Participants were presented with pairs of items and then tested on both item memory (old/new items) and associative memory (intact/recombined pairs). For words, older participants performed worse than young participants on item and associative tests but to a greater extent on the latter. In contrast, for nonwords, older participants performed equally worse than young participants on item and associative tests. This is the first study to demonstrate that a manipulation of stimulus novelty can alter age-related associative deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is study time allocated selectively to a region of proximal learning?

Five experiments investigated whether people allocate their study time according to the discrepancy reduction model (i.e., to the most difficult items; J. Dunlosky & C. Hertzog, 1998) or to items in their own region of proximal learning. Consistent with the latter hypothesis, as more time was given, people shifted toward studying more difficult items. Experts, whether college students or Grade 6 children, devoted their time to items that were more difficult than did novices. However, in a multiple-trials experiment, people regressed toward easier items on Trial 2 rather than shifting to more difficult items, perhaps because Trial 1 feedback revealed poor learning of the easiest items. These findings are in opposition to the discrepancy reduction model and support the region of proximal learning hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and memory for action events: The role of familiarity.

Two experiments with young and elderly adults explored age-related memory differences for performed action events varying in familiarity. Memory for similar items encoded verbally was also assessed. The findings demonstrated that type of encoding and item-familiarity influenced immediate as well as delayed free recall in both age groups. Highest recall performances were found for familiar performed items. Both factors affected memory performance separately and did not compensate for each other, either in immediate or in delayed free recall. These findings held true regardless of age. Performed actions were especially resistant against forgetting, indicating that, besides the amount of items encoded, performing while encoding especially enhances the retention of knowledge. Recognition memory also varied with type of encoding. Age-related memory differences were found in all free recall tests irrespective of item familiarity and type of encoding, favoring young adults. No age-related memory differences were found in the recognition test. Because of possible ceiling effects, this finding must be treated with care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging, distraction, and response pressure on the binding of actors and actions.

Two experiments provide evidence for an age-related deficit in the binding of actors with actions that is distinct from binding deficits associated with distraction or response pressure. Young and older adults viewed a series of actors performing different actions. Participants returned 1 week later for a recognition test. Older adults were more likely than young adults to falsely recognize novel conjunctions of familiar actors and actions. This age-related binding deficit occurred even when older adults could discriminate old items from new items just as well as could young adults. Young adults who experienced distraction or time pressure also had difficulty discriminating old items from conjunction items, but this deficit was accompanied by a deficit at discriminating old and new items. These results suggest that distraction and response pressure lead to deficits in memory for stimulus components, with any deficits in binding ability commensurate with these deficits in component memory. Aging, in turn, may lead to binding difficulties that are independent of attention-demanding executive processes involved in maintaining individual stimulus components in working memory, likely reflecting declines in hippocampally mediated associative processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative deficit in recognition memory in a lifespan sample of healthy adults.

Advanced age is associated with decrements in episodic memory, which are more pronounced in memory for associations than for individual items. The associative deficit hypothesis (ADH) states that age differences in recognition memory reflect difficulty in binding components of a memory episode and retrieving bound units. To date, ADH has received support only in studies of extreme age groups, and the influence of sex, education, and health on age-related associative deficit is unknown. We address those issues using a verbal paired-associate yes–no recognition paradigm on a lifespan sample of 278 healthy, well-educated adults. In accord with the ADH, greater age was associated with lower hit and greater false alarm rates and more liberal response bias on associative recognition tests. Women outperformed men on recognition of items and associations, but among normotensive participants, women outperformed men only on memory for associations and not on item recognition. Thus, although supporting ADH in a large lifespan sample of healthy adults, the findings indicate that the effect may be partially driven by an age-related increase in liberal bias in recognition of associations. Sex differences and health factors may modify the associative deficit regardless of age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-adapted testing: A performance-improving variant of computerized adaptive testing.

We conducted an experiment that contrasted a variant of computerized adaptive testing, self-adapted testing, with two traditional tests, a relatively difficult one and a relatively easy one, that were constructed from the same bank of verbal ability items. In a self-adapted test, the examinee, rather than a computerized algorithm, chooses the difficulty of the next item to be presented. Participants completed a self-report of text anxiety and were randomly assigned to take one of the three tests of verbal ability. Analyses of variance using Rasch estimates of ability and the standard error of those estimates as dependent measures demonstrated that the self-adapted test led to higher ability estimates and minimized the effect of test anxiety without any overall loss of measurement precision. Analysis of the item choices in the self-adapted test suggested that, in general, participants chose more difficult items as the test progressed. Anxiety was negatively associated with the difficulty of the initial choice but not associated with the rate of progress to higher difficulty items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of agenda-based and habitual processes on item selection during study.

Research on study-time allocation has largely focused on agenda-based regulation, such as whether learners select items for study that are in their region of proximal learning. In 4 experiments, the authors evaluated the contribution of habitual responding to study-time allocation (e.g., reading from left to right). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants selected items for study from a 3-item array. In Experiment 1, pairs were ordered by learning ease from left to right or in the reverse order. In Experiment 2, pairs were in a column with the easiest item either in the top or bottom position. Participants more likely chose to study the easiest item first when it was presented in the prominent position of an array, but when the difficult item was in the prominent position, it was more often chosen first for study. In Experiment 3, a 3 × 3 array was used. In 1 group, the 3 easy items were in the left column and the 3 difficult ones were in the right column; in another group, these columns were reversed. Participants largely chose items in a top-down or left-to-right order. In Experiment 4, items were presented sequentially for item selection, with either the difficult items presented first (followed by progressively easier items) or in the reverse order. Participants could choose half the items for restudy, and they were more likely to choose items presented earlier in the list, regardless of presentation order. These and other outcomes indicate that both agenda-based regulation (in terms of using the region of proximal learning) and habitual responding contribute to people's selection of items for study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive decline in old age: Separating retest effects from the effects of growing older.

Repeated administration of cognitive tests improves test performance, making it difficult for researchers to gauge the true extent of age-related cognitive decline. The authors examined this issue using data from the Rush Religious Orders Study and linear mixed-effects models. At annual intervals for up to 8 years, more than 800 older Catholic clergy members completed the same set of 19 cognitive tests from which previously established composite measures of cognitive domains were derived. Retest effects on some measures were substantial and continued to accumulate even after 8 annual test readministrations, but effects on other measures were minimal. Across cognitive measures, retest effects were not related to age, sex, or education. Individual differences in retest effects were substantial but not consistent across cognitive measures. The results suggest that retest-based improvement in cognitive test performance can be substantial and persistent. (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)     

Differential functioning of the Beck Depression inventory in late-life patients: Use of item response theory.

The present analyses examined age-related measurement bias in responses to items on the revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in depressed late-life patients versus midlife patients. Item response theory (IRT) models were used to equate the scale and to differentiate true-group differences from bias in measurement in the 2 samples. Baseline BDI data (218 late life and 613 midlife) were used for the present analysis. IRT results indicated that late-life patients tended to report fewer cognitive symptoms, especially at low to average levels of depression. Conversely, they tended to report more somatic symptoms, especially at higher levels of depression. Adjusted cutoff scores in the late-life group are provided, and possible reasons for age-related differences in the performance of the BDI are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Losses in gross brain volume and cerebral blood flow account for age-related differences in speed but not in fluid intelligence.

Age-related gross head size; adjusted age-related change in brain volume and carotid and basilar blood flow; as well as scores on 3 tests of fluid intelligence (gf), 2 tests of information-processing speed, 2 memory tests, and 3 tests of executive function were obtained from 69 volunteers aged from 62 to 84 years. Brain volume negatively predicted scores on all 10 cognitive tasks, accounting for up to 78% of age-related variance in scores on the speed tasks and on 1 executive task. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) negatively predicted scores on 8 cognitive tasks, accounting for up to 36% of age-related variance in speed scores. However, neither brain volume nor CBF accounted for significant age-related variance between individuals on any of 3 gf tests. We conclude that speed, but not gf, is an exceptionally sensitive behavioral index of the progress of gross brain changes that affect cognition in old age and that speed and gf do not reflect integrity of the same functional systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directed forgetting affects both direct and indirect tests of memory.

In two experiments, subjects were instructed either to remember or to forget each word. Following study, two tests were given, one a direct test of memory requiring conscious recollection of the study list and the other an indirect test that could be performed without awareness of the study list. In Experiment 1, subjects recognized more remember than forget words (direct test) and completed more remember than forget fragments (indirect test) on both immediate and 1-week delayed tests. In Experiment 2, subjects showed superior recall (direct test) and greater repetition priming in lexical decision (indirect test) for remember than for forget words. The consistent directed forgetting effect on both types of tests is in accord with the idea that forget items are inhibited at the time of retrieval and that retrieval manipulations, unlike elaboration manipulations at encoding, affect direct and indirect tests in similar ways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repetition as a possible source of "isolation" in free recall.

Ss listened to lists in which 1 or more items were repeated in immediate succession to determine whether an item is better retained when it is embedded in a series of unique items, or of items repeated at longer lags, than when it occurs within a series of items that are also presented twice in a row. Data indicate that it is not. It is concluded that repetition does not normally function as a significant source of "isolation" in tests of free recall. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and source monitoring: Cognitive processes and neuropsychological correlates.

This study shows that relative to younger adults, older adults are more adversely influenced by similar items when judging a memory's source, and the phenomenal features of their correctly and incorrectly attributed memories have greater overlap. The authors argue in accordance with the source monitoring framework that this age-related impairment in source accuracy is related to processes involved in binding features into complex memories and those involved in accessing and evaluating contextual features of memories. These processes are linked to medial temporal and frontal brain regions, respectively, as evidenced by correlations in older adults between source accuracy and neuropsychological tests often used to assess medial temporal and frontal function. The results suggest that adequate feature binding is particularly important when items from different sources share similar features and access-evaluation processes are particularly important after a delay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When does testing enhance retention? A distribution-based interpretation of retrieval as a memory modifier.

Tests, as learning events, can enhance subsequent recall more than do additional study opportunities, even without feedback. Such advantages of testing tend to appear, however, only at long retention intervals and/or when criterion tests stress recall, rather than recognition, processes. We propose that the interaction of the benefits of testing versus restudying with final-test delay and format reflects not only that successful retrievals are more powerful learning events than are re-presentations but also that the distribution of memory strengths across items is shifted differentially by testing and restudying. The benefits of initial testing over restudying, in this view, should increase as the delay or format of the final test makes that test more difficult. Final-test difficulty, not the similarity of initial-test and final-test conditions, should determine the benefits of testing. In Experiments 1 and 2 we indeed found that initial cued-recall testing enhanced subsequent recall more than did restudying when the final test was a difficult (free-recall) test but not when it was an easier (cued-recall) test that matched the initial test. The results of Experiment 3 supported a new prediction of the distribution framework: namely, that the final cued-recall test that did not show a benefit of testing in Experiment 1 should show such a benefit when that test was made more difficult by introducing retroactive interference. Overall, our results suggest that the differential consequences of initial testing versus restudying reflect, in part, differences in how items distributions are shifted by testing and studying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a general model of self-regulated study: An analysis of selection of items for study and self-paced study time.

People of all ages are more likely to choose to restudy items (or allocate more study time to items) that are perceived as more difficult to learn than as less difficult to learn. Existing models of self-regulated study adequately account for this inverse relation between perceived difficulty of learning and these 2 measures of self-regulated study (item selection and self-paced study). However, these models cannot account for positive relations between perceived difficulty of learning and item selection, which are demonstrated in the present investigation. Namely, in Experiments 1 and 2, the authors described conditions in which people more often selected to study items judged as less difficult than as more difficult to learn. This positive relation was not demonstrated for self-paced study, which was always negatively correlated with judged difficulty to learn. In Experiments 3 through 6, the authors explored explanations for this dissociation between item selection and self-paced study. Discussion focuses on a general model of self-regulated study that includes planning, discrepancy reduction, and working-memory constraints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for items and their spatial locations by young and elderly adults.

112 15–18 yr olds and 112 62–75 yr olds studied a spatial display that included 16 items in specific locations. The items were either small objects or the 1-word verbal label for each. Two tests followed to independently assess free recall of the items and the accuracy of spatial relocation. Young Ss were more accurate on both tests. This finding was consistent for both verbal and visual items. The age differences in memory are explained in terms of age differences in encoding and rehearsal strategies. This study resolves, in part, the conflicting results regarding age differences in spatial memory accuracy reported by P. D. McCormack (see record 1982-23301-001) and M. Perlmutter et al (1981). (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)