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)     

Processing relational and item-specific information: Effects of aging and division of attention.

64 young adults (aged 18–21 yrs) and 32 older Ss (aged 65–83 yrs) encoded items from categorizable lists under incidental learning conditions. Two orienting tasks were used: a category sorting task and a pleasantness rating task. The number of items/category was varied (between 2 and 14) within each list. In addition, 24 young adults performed the orienting tasks while simultaneously engaged in an attention-demanding secondary task (divided-attention condition). Recall declined with both age and division of attention, while recall clustering was greatest for the older Ss and least for the young divided-attention Ss. The effects of category size and orienting task on recall did not vary across groups. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of environmental support on implicit and explicit memory in younger and older adults.

Addressed (1) whether there are age differences on an implicit word-stem-completion task and (2) whether age differences on both implicit and explicit memory would decrease with increased environmental support. A total of 287 Ss were presented with words in an incidental learning task with structural or semantic processing. Following 2 filler tasks, Ss received an implicit or an explicit word-stem-completion task. The number of letters in the stem varied from 2 to 4. Results yielded an Age?×?Memory Task dissociation such that there were large age differences on the explicit task and no age difference on the implicit task, regardless of whether Ss aware of the memory test were included or excluded. There was no evidence that environmental support improved older adults' performance more than that of younger adults on either memory task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective encoding and consequent remembering in schizophrenic young adults.

Investigated whether schizophrenics' recall deficit can be ameliorated if appropriate encoding behaviors are experimentally induced, using 18 schizophrenics, 15 nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients, and 19 normals. In Session 1, the S was shown 50 words on a screen one at a time and rated them in terms of pleasantness-unpleasantness (orienting task); an unexpected free recall followed (incidental recall). In Session 2 given 1 wk later, the S was forewarned about the recall test prior to his engagement in the orienting task for another 50-word list; 4 free-recall trials followed (intentional recall). The recalls of the 3 groups were comparable in both sessions. The recall performance was also examined separately for the pleasant and unpleasant words, as rated by the Ss. All 3 groups tended to recall pleasant words more often than unpleasant words. It is, therefore, concluded that the schizophrenics' recall and pleasure deficits are probably remediable by means of attentional and encoding treatments. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memorability as a measure of processing: A unit analysis of prose and list learning.

Presented the same set of unrelated words to 13 different groups of Ss under 13 different conditions to show the effects of another dependent variable in memory studies. Included were intentional free-recall tasks, incidental free recall following lexical decision, and incidental free recall following ratings of orthographic distinctiveness and emotionality. Probability of recall was similar among tasks. Imagery encoding and recognition produced relative probabilities of recall that were different from each other and from free recall. Similar results were then obtained with a prose passage: A story was learned by 13 groups of Ss under 13 conditions. Eight free-recall tasks, which varied with respect to incidental or intentional learning, retention interval, and the age of the Ss, produced similar relative probabilities of recall, whereas recognition and prompted recall produced relative probabilities of recall that were different from each other and from the free-recall tasks. A review of the prose literature was undertaken to test the generality of these results. For the 12 studies that manipulated retention interval, an average of 21% of the variance was accounted for by the main effect of retention interval, 17% by the main effect of units, and only 2% by the retention interval by units interaction. Similarly, for the 12 studies that varied the age of the Ss, 6% of the variance was accounted for by the main effect of age, 32% by the main effect of units, and only 1% by the interaction of age by units. (80 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sparing of semantic memory in Alzheimer's disease.

A number of investigators have suggested that unlike the normal elderly population, patients with Alzheimer's disease have a severe semantic-memory deficit. However, the semantic-memory tasks used in previous studies have been confounded by the heavy demands they placed on effortful processing. In the present study, 20 demented (mean age 71 yrs) and 20 normal (mean age 69.8 yrs) elderly Ss were given a battery of episodic-memory tasks and 3 tasks that examined how intact and accessible their semantic memory was under conditions that did not require effortful processing. Although the demented Ss were greatly inferior to the normal Ss on the episodic-memory tests, they performed equally well on the semantic-memory test: The naming latency of both groups was equally facilitated by a semantic prime, the recall accuracy of both normal and demented elderly for a string of letters was similarly affected by the degree to which the string approximated English orthography, and recall accuracy for a string of words was affected equally in the 2 groups by the degree to which the word string obeyed syntactic and semantic rules. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic processing and self-reference in clinical depression.

Investigated differences in self-schema content among 16 clinical depressives, 16 nondepressed psychiatric control patients, and 16 normal nondepressives (18–65 yr old females administered the Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression). Ss were required to make structural (Small letters?), semantic (Means same as a given word?), and self-referent (Describes you?) ratings on depressed- and nondepressed-content personal adjectives. Ratings were followed immediately by an incidental recall period in which Ss recalled as many of the adjectives as possible. In accord with predictions generated from a self-as-schema model, adjective recall was greater for the self-referent rating task, relative to the other tasks. Furthermore, consistent with the content-specificity component of this model, both normal and nondepressed psychiatric controls displayed superior recall only for self-referenced, nondepressed-content adjectives. Also, depressives displayed significantly enhanced recall only for depressed-content adjectives rated under the self-referent task. Results support the proposal of A. T. Beck et al (1979) that an efficient negative self-schema exists, specific to the disorder of depression. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in incidental memory as a function of meaningfulness and encoding condition.

Examined incidental memory for words in 30 2nd and 60 6th graders under acoustic- and semantic-processing conditions. When the same list of words (known from normative data to increase in meaningfulness with age) was presented to Ss of both grades, an age-related increase in recall was observed in the semantic but not in the acoustic condition. When meaningfulness of the lists was equivalent across grades, no developmental increase in recall was observed for either encoding condition. Findings were predicted by an associative-processing account of incidental memory previously advanced by the author (see record 1981-31937-001) and indicate that both knowledge base development and processing activity determine children's incidental memory for words. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional mapping of human memory using PET: Comparisons of conceptual and perceptual tasks.

Tested whether different neurological regions subserved the conceptual and perceptual memory components by using positron emission tomography (PET). Regional cerebral blood flow (RCBF) of 14 Ss (mean age 25 yrs) during 2 conceptual tasks of semantic cued recall and semantic association was compared to a control condition in which Ss made semantic associations to nonstudied words. RCBF during 2 perceptual tasks of word fragment cued recall and word fragment completion was also compared to a word fragment nonstudied control condition. There were clear dissociations in RCBF that reflected differences in brain regions subserving the 2 types of memory processes. Conceptual processing produced more activation in the left frontal and temporal cortex and the lateral aspect of the bilateral inferior parietal lobule. Perceptual memory processing activated the right frontal and temporal cortex and the bilateral posterior areas. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional strategies, attention, and metacognition in Puerto Rican children.

60 2nd-, 5th-, and 8th-grade Puerto Ricans participated in a strategy assessment task and an incidental learning task that provided a measure of attentional performance. Metacognition concerning attention was assessed by asking Ss to predict how much incidental material they would recall. ANOVAs revealed no developmental changes in the use of an efficient attentional strategy, the amount of central recall, the amount of incidental recall, or in metacognitive knowledge. Results differ from a previous study by the 1st author and M. G. Weiss with 60 predominantly White, middle-class Florida children in which attention and strategies became increasingly efficient as a function of age. In comparison to the Florida sample, Puerto Rican 2nd graders' strategies were more efficient and the 8th graders' strategies were less efficient. Attention on the incidental learning task was less selective for the Puerto Rican Ss than the Florida Ss. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of orienting tasks on the recall and recognition performance of subjects differing in age.

Investigated the recall and recognition performance of 498 adults in 3 age groups (20–39, 40–59, and 60–80 yrs) following different orienting-task requirements. It was demonstrated that young and old adults are differentially affected by task requirements. The youngest group was disproportionately benefited by an orienting task that involved semantic processing. Results support the notion of an age-related processing deficit. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of source memory to identity one's own episodic confusion errors.

In 4 category cued recall experiments, falsely recalled nonlist common members, a semantic confusion error participants. Errors were more likely if critical nonlist words were presented on an incidental task, causing source memory failures called episodic confusion errors . Participants could better identify the source of falsely recalled words if they had deeply processed the words on the incidental task. For deep but not shallow processing, participants could reliably include or exclude incidentally shown category members in recall. The illusion that critical items actually appeared on categorized lists was diminished but not eradicated when participants identified episodic confusion errors post hoc among their own recalled responses; participants often believed that critical items had been on both the incidental task and the study list. Improved source monitoring can potentially mitigate episodic (but not semantic) confusion errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for activities: Adult age differences and intentionality.

24 17–24 yr olds and 24 56–76 yr olds were tested for memory of activities on a series of tasks (e.g., letter cancellation and anagrams) that varied along the rote–cognitive dimension. Half the Ss in each age group were forewarned of the subsequent memory test (intentional learning); the remaining Ss were not forewarned (incidental learning). An overall age difference, favoring young Ss, was found. However, the magnitude of the age difference varied across activities, being slight for cognitively demanding tasks and pronounced for less-demanding activities. Memory was unaffected by the forewarning variable for both age groups. Results are interpreted in terms of an age deficit in the retrieval of memory traces established by activities, with cognitively demanding activities yielding more distinctive and therefore more retrievable traces than less-demanding activities for older adults. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in remembering faces.

Assessed adult age differences in recognition memory for pictures of faces under different instructional conditions using data from 110 18–25 and 115 50–80 yr old Ss. The experiment was designed to test M. W. Eysenck's (see record 1975-05006-001) "processing-deficit" account of age differences in memory by varying S's encoding of the faces. Although older Ss recognized fewer faces, the elaborative orienting task facilitated recognition memory equally in the 2 different adult age groups. The processing-deficit hypothesis is not supported by this finding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of orienting tasks on the retention of prose material.

Two studies investigated the effects of orienting tasks on retention of prose material. Exp I, with 200 undergraduates, assessed several such tasks under incidental and intentional instructions. Dependent variables were recall and recall per unit time (efficiency). Outlining and copying tasks generated good recall that forced more interaction with the material. A sorting task affected the quality of interaction with material. Exp II, with 280 undergraduates, investigated the effects of different strengths of instructions. Strong instructions induced more interaction, resulting in better recall under intentional than under incidental instructions. Intentional instructions had greater impact on less efficient tasks and less effect on more efficient tasks. Maximum recall and efficiency occurred with simple instructions to read the passage. An activity or levels of processing hypothesis is proposed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What is memory aging the aging of?

Tested 64 males and females in their 20s and 60s, with high school and doctoral-level educations, on a variety of memory tasks. There were sizable age decrements in word recall and recognition independent of education. Age differences in the pattern of performance on incidental and intentional recall and recognition tests and in semantic elaboration suggested that older Ss suffer from associative processing production deficiencies and inefficiencies. No age differences in number of overt free associations, responses on the memory questionnaire, study time, reported strategy use, accuracy at memory prediction, accuracy at confidence rating, intrusions in recall, or response criterion in recognition suggested that age differences in word memory were not related to amount of semantic processing, knowledge about memory, inclination to strategically engage in activities to enhance retention, memory monitoring, or memory selection or decision. There were age increments in fact recall and recognition, also independent of education. These trends may have been related to age differences in preexperimental familiarity with materials, but also suggested limitations in the generalizability of findings from typical laboratory tasks. There were weak but positive relations between poor memory and both poor health and acceptance of "aging" roles. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in sensitivity to semantic structure of prose.

50 18–33 yr olds and 43 62–67 yr olds from low- and high-education populations heard narrative passages at different presentation rates and difficulty levels in 2 experiments. Immediately after listening to a tape-recorded version of each story, Ss orally recalled it. Results consistently demonstrate that younger Ss remembered more than older ones, but Ss from all groups favored the main ideas in their recalls. Also, Ss from all ages and educational levels were equally able to identify the important information in the stories. It is suggested that sensitivity to the semantic structure of prose is not a major component of adult age differences in discourse comprehension. It is further suggested that adult age differences observed on discourse comprehension tasks may reflect an age-related decline in processing capacity. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of topical learning and indirect learning directions on prose recall.

Studied the recall effects of telling readers what sentences to learn by referring to words in sentences or to topics of sentences. Ss were 130 undergraduates. There were 5 sets of learning directions: (a) Control directions told Ss to learn the text; (b) word-positive directions gave the 1st few words of relevant (to be learned) sentences; (c) word-negative directions gave the 1st few words of incidental (not to be learned) sentences; (d) topical-positive directions gave the topics of the relevant sentences; and (e) word-negative directions gave the topics of incidental sentences. Word reference (but not topical reference) facilitated relevant recall and depressed incidental recall. Results support the importance of precise reference in the use of learning directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for spatial information in young and old adults.

Evaluated the claim that memory for spatial information is automatic. 46 18–35 yr olds and 49 51–80 yr olds studied a map containing 12 structures. Half the Ss in each age group were asked to remember both the structures and their locations (intentional learning), and the remaining half were led to believe they would be tested only on the structures (incidental learning). Both age and test expectations affected memory for the locations of structures, with older Ss and Ss in the incidental groups performing more poorly. It is concluded that memory for spatial location is not automatic. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)