Spatial memory for objects and words.

Examined in 4 experiments whether spatial location information is more likely to be encoded with the memory representation of objects than of words. 16 objects or the 1-word verbal labels for each were studied on a matrix display, followed by a recall test and then a relocation test. In each experiment, an independent variable known to affect item recall was introduced to test whether spatial location memory would concomitantly vary for both objects and words. In Exp I, with 48 2nd graders, 48 5th graders, and 48 high school juniors and seniors, recall of both objects and words increased with age of the Ss. However, relocation accuracy increased for objects but not for words. In Exp II, with 64 4th graders and 64 high school juniors and seniors, visual imagery instructions generally improved memory for words without affecting relocation accuracy. In Exps III (with 56 undergraduates) and IV (with 80 adults, aged 26.2–52.3 yrs), prolonging the test delay diminished recall for objects and words. However, relocation accuracy decreased only for the objects. In each experiment, item memory was affected independently of location memory for words but not for objects. The results suggest that different processes are involved in encoding item and location information for words but not for objects. (32 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)     

Episodic priming and memory for temporal source: Event-related potentials reveal age-related differences in prefrontal functioning.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from young (M?=?25) and older (M?=?71) adults during a recognition memory paradigm that assessed episodic priming. Participants studied two temporally distinct lists of sentences (each with two unassociated nouns). At test, in response to the nouns, participants made old–new, followed by remember (context)–know (familiarity) and source (i.e., list) judgments. Both young and older adults showed equivalent episodic priming effects. However, compared to the young adults, the older adults showed a greater source performance decrement than item memory performance decrement. Both age groups showed equivalent posterior-maximal old-new ERP effects. However, only the young produced a frontal-maximal, late onset old-new effect that differed as a function of subsequent list attribution. Because source memory is thought to be mediated by prefrontal cortex, we conclude that age-related memory differences may be due to a deficit in a prefrontal cortical system that underlies source memory and are not likely to be due to an age-related decline in episodic priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Echoic memory processes in good and poor readers.

Conducted 4 experiments to determine whether echoic memory plays a role in differences between good and poor readers. In Exp I, with 9 poor (mean age 11.05 yrs) and 9 good (mean age 10.9 yrs) readers, and Exp II, with 12 poor (mean age 10.85 yrs) and 12 good (mean age 10.7 yrs) readers, a suffix procedure was used in which the S was read a list of digits with either a tone control or the word go appended to the list. For lists that exceeded the length of the Ss' memory span by 1 digit (i.e., that avoided ceiling effects), poor readers showed a larger decrement in the suffix condition than did good readers. In Exp III, with 14 poor (mean age 10.64 yrs) and 14 good (mean age 10.83 yrs) readers, Ss shadowed words presented to 1 ear at a rate determined to give 75–85% shadowing accuracy. The item presented to the nonattended ear were words and an occasional digit. At various intervals after the presentation of the digit, a light signaled that the S was to cease shadowing and attempt to recall any digit that had occurred in the nonattended ear recently. Whereas good and poor readers recalled the digit equally if tested immediately after presentation, poor readers showed a faster decline in recall of the digit as retention interval increased. In Exp IV, using Ss from Exp II, bursts of white noise were separated by 9–400 msec of silence, and the S was to say whether there were 1 or 2 sounds presented. There were no differences in detectability functions for good and poor readers. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and visual field differences in computing visual-spatial relations.

Age and brain hemispheric differences in visual–spatial performance were investigated using 2 versions of categorical and coordinate (metric) spatial relations tasks. 32 young adults (M?=?19.2 yrs) and 32 older adults (M?=?68.8 yrs) participated. An overall age-related decrement in computing visual–spatial relations was obtained for lateralized presentations and when items were presented centrally. In contrast to some previous findings, there was no evidence to suggest differential aging of the right hemisphere in computing visual–spatial relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concomitant eyeblink and heart rate classical conditioning in young, middle-aged, and elderly human subjects.

Pavlovian heart rate (HR) and eyeblink (EB) conditioning were assessed in 4 groups of Ss who differed in age: young?=?19–33 yrs, young middle-aged?=?35–48 yrs, old middle-aged?=?50–63 yrs, and old?=?66–78 yrs. A 100-msec corneal airpuff was the unconditioned stimulus/stimuli (UCS) and a 600-msec tone was the CS. A nonassociative control group received explicitly unpaired tone and airpuff presentations. All Ss were studied for 2 100-trial sessions separated by approximately 7 days. An impairment in acquisition of both the EB and HR responses occurred in the old and middle-age Ss, but all age groups showed significantly greater conditioning than did the control group. Slight increases in performance resulted from a 2nd session of training. These findings suggest and age-related impairment in a general associative process. (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)     

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 memory functioning in a community-based sample of old adults with major depression: Utilization of cognitive support.

Community-based samples of old adults with current major depression (n?=?17; mean age 83.29 yrs) and healthy old adults (n?=?51; mean age 83.29 yrs) were examined on a variety of episodic recall and recognition tasks. Results indicate depression-related deficits in recall that were reduced but not eliminated, in recognition. Control Ss were able to utilize cognitive support in the form of more study time and item organizability in free recall, whereas depressed Ss were not. However, both groups showed equal gains from the provision of category cues and beneficial effects of prior knowledge and more study time in recognition. Results suggest that depression results in deficits in effortful, elaborate processes at encoding and retrieval and that old age depression is associated with a reduced ability to utilize cognitive support to improve episodic memory. Depressed older adults appear to require cognitive support at both encoding and retrieval to demonstrate memory facilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A developmental study of shape integration over space and time.

Three experiments, with 172 Ss (aged 6–24 yrs), examined the integration of shape information over successive glances. In Exps I and II, Ss classified line drawings subtending 1–26° visual angle as possible or impossible objects. Response times and errors increased as a function of figure size for all age groups. The decline in performance with figure size was greater for children than for adults. In Exp II, Ss also performed a classification task based on only 1 of the informative regions in each figure. Performance in the 2 tasks suggested that the ability to encode shape information from a single region of the figures did not change with age. In Exp III, a simultaneous condition, in which an intact figure was presented, was compared with sequential conditions in which blank intervals of 0–3 sec separated 2 views of different parts of the figure. All Ss classified the figures most quickly and accurately in the simultaneous condition, and children were more affected by longer delays between views than adults. It is concluded that these results point to age-related improvements in sequential integration of shape information, both when integration occurs through successive glimpses over space and when information is separated only in time. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in metamemory: Resolving the inconsistencies.

Conducted a cross-validation study of 2 questionnaires designed to measure knowledge, affects, and beliefs about memory in 2 large samples. A sample of 360 Ss from British Columbia was divided among the following 4 age groups: 20–26 yrs, 55–61 yrs, 62–68 yrs, and 69–78 yrs. The 2nd sample, from Pennsylvania, included 415 Ss representing the entire adult age range. Results suggest that there are significant age and sex differences in such perceptions. Compared with younger adults, older adults consistently reported less memory capacity, more decline in memory functioning, and believed they had less control over their memory ability. Females reported more strategy use and greater anxiety associated with memory than males. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory interference effects and aging: Findings from a test of frontal lobe function.

Performance on behavioral measures of self-ordered pointing and 2-choice recognition memory was evaluated in young adults (aged 18–23 yrs) and 2 groups of older adults (aged 61–70 yrs and 71–80 yrs). The self-ordered pointing test involves working memory and has been used as an index of frontal lobe dysfunction; to perform well, Ss must organize stimulus information and monitor responses. Both groups of older adults exhibited impairment on the pointing test, but the pattern of impairment was different for the 2 groups. Individuals in their 60s exhibited impairment on a 2nd block of trials but not on the 1st block. Individuals in their 70s exhibited deficits on both blocks of trials. On the recognition test, only individuals in their 70s exhibited impairment. The findings suggest that age-related impairments occur in both working memory and recognition memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paired-associate learning and priming effects in amnesia: A neuropsychological study.

Conducted 4 experiments investigating the role of priming effects in paired-associate learning. Ss for all 4 experiments were 5 male and 3 female alcoholics (mean age 53.8 yrs; WAIS—R IQs 85–203) with Korsakoff syndrome. Control Ss were 26 male alcoholics (mean age 47.6 yrs). Exp I illustrated the distinction between the memory impairment of amnesic (Korsakoff) Ss and their intact priming ability. In Exp II, amnesic Ss showed good paired-associate learning for related word pairs but controls performed significantly better. Exp II also showed that the forgetting of related word pairs by amnesic Ss followed the same time course as the decay of word priming. Exp III showed that amnesic Ss were as good as controls at learning related word pairs when word-association tests were used. Exp IV showed that amnesic Ss exhibited normal priming when they were asked to free associate to words that were semantically related to previously presented words. Results indicate that both priming effects and paired-associate learning of related words depended on activation, a process that is preserved in amnesia. Activation is a transient phenomenon presumed to operate on and facilitate access to preexisting representations. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and metamemory: A study of the feeling-of-knowing phenomenon in amnesic patients.

Tested accuracy of the feeling of knowing in 2 experiments, using 8 patients with Korsakoff's syndrome (mean age 54 yrs), 8 electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) patients (mean age 46.5 yrs), 4 Ss (mean age 47 yrs) with other causes of amnesia, 2 alcoholic control groups (7 Ss with a mean age of 47.6 yrs and 19 Ss with a mean age of 48.5 yrs), and 18 healthy controls (mean age 49 yrs). In Exp I, feeling-of-knowing accuracy for the answers to general information questions that could not be recalled was tested. Ss were asked to rank nonrecalled questions in terms of how likely they thought they would be to recognize the answers and were then given a recognition test for these items. Only Korsakoff's syndrome Ss were impaired in making feeling-of-knowing predictions. The other amnesic Ss were as accurate as control Ss in their feeling-of-knowing predictions. In Exp II, these findings were replicated in a sentence memory paradigm that tested newly learned information. Results show that impaired metamemory is not an obligatory feature of amnesia, because amnesia can occur without detectable metamemory deficits. The impaired metamemory exhibited by patients with Korsakoff's syndrome reflects a cognitive impairment that is not typically observed in other forms of amnesia. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of spatial information processing in aged rats.

The spatial learning abilities of young, middle-age, and senescent rats were investigated in 2 experiments using several versions of the Morris water maze task. In Exp I, Long-Evans hooded rats were trained to find a submerged escape platform hidden within the water maze. Aged Ss exhibited acquisition deficits compared with either young or middle-age Ss. With continued training, all age groups eventually achieved comparable asymptotic levels of performance. To identify the basis of the age-related impairments observed in Exp I, naive young and aged Ss in Exp II were initially tested for their ability to locate a cued escape platform in the water maze. The escape latencies of both young and aged Ss rapidly decreased to equivalent asymptotic levels. Following cue training, young Ss exhibit a significant spatial bias for the region of the testing apparatus where the platform was positioned during training. In contrast, aged Ss showed no spatial bias. Training was continued in Exp II using a novel submerged platform location for each S. During these place training trials, the escape latencies of senescent Ss were longer than those of young Ss. These impairments were also accompanied by a lack of spatial bias among aged Ss relative to young controls. Results indicate that age-related impairments in water maze performance reflect a specific deficit in the ability of aged rats to utilize spatial information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual difference and contextual variables influence spatial memory in younger and older adults.

Examined the influence of individual difference and contextual variables on the magnitude of age differences in memory for spatial location. Younger adults and 2 samples of older adults that differed in educational attainment, verbal intelligence, and working memory ability were compared. Ss studied and later recreated an arrangement of small objects that were placed on a plain map or a visually distinctive model. The objects were either unrelated or categorigically related items. The results indicated that distinctive context enhanced spatial memory, and the magnitude of the benefit was generally comparable across age groups and stimulus sets. Hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that working memory resources accounted for a sizable proportion of age-related variance in memory for spatial location. The implications of these results for current views on age-related differences in memory for spatial location are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination learning requiring different memory components in rats: Age and neurochemical comparisons.

Three experiments compared the performances of 19 young (8–9 mo old) and 23 aged (22–24 mo old) male ACI rats in a T-maze involving a spatial discrimination in the stem of the T-maze that required long-term reference memory, and discrete-trial, alternation discrimination in the arms of the T-maze that required working memory. Following acquisition training in 1 maze, Ss were trained in a 2nd maze in which the correct response in stem was opposite to that in the 1st maze. In Exps I and II, aged Ss made more errors in all phases of maze training than did young Ss, suggesting that all components of memory processing were affected equivalently. In Exp III, aged Ss were unimpaired in the ability to perform in a T-maze task involving a brightness discrimination with intramaze cues. This result suggests that the age-related impairment in the 2-component T-maze task was restricted to the cognitive demands of the task. Neurochemical analyses revealed a slight (8%) but significant age-related decline in the activity of glutamic acid decarboxylase but not of choline acetyltransferase. Although the correlation between maze performance and regional enzyme activities generally supported previous observations, the only significant correlation to emerge was between working memory performance and glutamic acid decarboxylase activity in the cingulate cortex. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)