"The Memory Functioning Questionnaire for assessment of memory complaints in adulthood and old age": Correction to Gilewski et al.

Reports an error in "The Memory Functioning Questionnaire for assessment of memory complaints in adulthood and old age" by Michael J. Gilewski, Elizabeth M. Zelinski and K. Warner Schaie (Psychology and Aging, 1990[Dec], Vol 5[4], 482-490). In the aforementioned article, the author note at the beginning of the article should have contained the following statement: "The Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ) items that appear in the appendix at the end of this article were published previously in 'Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ)' by Michael J. Gilewski and Elizabeth M. Zelinski (Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 1988, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 665-670). The current article reflects the construction validation, scoring, and interpretation of the MFQ more accurately than does the article that appeared in Psychopharmacology Bulletin." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1991-08788-001.) The results of psychometric analyses of the Metamemory Questionnaire (MQ) of E. M. Zelinski et al (1980), developed to evaluate perception of everyday memory functioning, are presented for a sample of 343 men and 435 women (aged 16-89 yrs). Exploratory factor analysis yielded 4 correlated factors (General Frequency of Forgetting, Retrospective Functioning, and Mnemonics Usage) that accounted for 36.7% of the variance in responses to the MQ. Factor structure was invariant across age groups (16-54 vs 55-89 yrs), 2 independent samples, and over 3 yrs. Because some of the original MQ scales did not load on the factors, only 64 of the original 92 items were retained for inclusion in the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (MFQ). Internal consistency of MFQ scores is high. The MFQ is therefore reliable for evaluating memory self-appraisals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in 16-year memory changes.

The authors analyzed the role of individual differences in age, gender, and 16-year declines in reasoning and vocabulary as predictors of 16-year changes in text and list recall and recognition in 82 adults aged 55–81 years at baseline. Declines in reasoning as well as being older at baseline predicted declines in text recall. Male gender and declining in vocabulary predicted declines in list recall. There were no reliable predictors of declines in recognition. The findings suggest that changes in abilities, as well as age and gender, predict declines on memory tasks. However, the specific predictors varied across tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Not your parents' test scores: Cohort reduces psychometric aging effects.

Increases over birth cohorts in psychometric abilities may impact effects of aging. Data from 2 cohorts of the Long Beach Longitudinal Study, matched on age but tested 16 years apart, were modeled over ages 55-87 to test the hypothesis that the more fluid abilities of reasoning, list and text recall, and space would show larger cohort differences than vocabulary. This hypothesis was confirmed. At age 74, average performance estimates for people from the more recently born cohort were equivalent to those of people from the older cohort when they were up to 15 years younger. This finding suggests that older adults may perform like much younger ones from the previous generation on fluid measures, indicating higher levels of abilities than expected. This result could have major implications for the expected productivity of an aging workforce as well as for the quality of life of future generations. However, cohort improvements did not mitigate age declines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

400-mW single-frequency 660-nm semiconductor laser

Using an angled-grating broad-area structure in GaInP-AlInP material system, we obtain single spatial and longitudinal-mode operation at 660 nm. The grating stabilizes the mode to deliver over 400-mW continuous-wave at room temperature from a 60-μm-wide stripe. This is about ten times higher than conventional distributed-feedback power output levels, and is the highest single-frequency power from a monolithic semiconductor device in this wavelength range. These devices should be useful for single-mode-fiber coupling and in applications where high-wavelength stability is required, such as spectroscopy, interferometry, or metrology     

Understanding unfamiliar words in young, young-old, and old-old adults: Inferential processing and the abstraction-deficit hypothesis.

Previous research suggests that older adults derive interpretations of unfamiliar words that are less precise than those of young adults (D. McGinnis & E. M. Zelinski, 2000). Thirty-one adults aged 18-37, 27 aged 65-74, and 28 aged 75-87 read passages containing unfamiliar words (1 per passage) and were asked to think aloud during reading. After reading each passage, participants selected meaning-relevant cues and rated the quality of 4 definition options. Compared with the 2 younger groups, the oldest group rated thematic and irrelevant definitions significantly higher, and their think-aloud protocols included more generalized inferences. Results pertaining to cue selection were not significant. Taken together, these results suggest that age differences in meaning derivation may be related to inferential processing that is overgeneralized, providing support for the abstraction-deficit hypothesis. (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)     

"Understanding unfamiliar words: The influence of processing resources, vocabulary knowledge, and age": Clarification regarding McGinnis and Zelinski (2000).

Reports a clarification regarding the original article "Understanding unfamiliar words: The influence of processing resources, vocabulary knowledge, and age" by Debra McGinnis and Elizabeth M. Zelinski (Psychology and Aging, 2000[Jun], Vol 15[2], 335-350). Please note that the Action Editor for this article was Anderson D. Smith. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2000-03816-012.) In a 2-experiment design, the authors assessed the role of age and ability in defining unfamiliar words from context. In Experiment 1, 60 adults aged 18-33 and 60 adults aged 61-96 read passages with cues to the meaning of rare words, then defined them. Older adults produced fewer components of the words' meanings and were more likely to produce generalized interpretations of the precise meaning. In Experiment 2, 726 adults aged 30-97 selected definitions from 4 choices: the exact definition, a generalized interpretation of the exact definition, a generalized interpretation of the story, and definition irrelevant information from the story. Adults over age 75 selected fewer precise definitions and more generalized interpretations of the story than younger ones. Findings suggest that older adults may have special difficulties in deriving the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in cross-sectional and 3-year longitudinal memory performance across the adult life span.

Reports individual differences analyses of performance on list and prose memory tasks for 250 men and 258 women (aged 55–84 yrs). Being retested, higher reasoning and vocabulary scores, and female gender predicted better prose recall and list recognition performance. For list recall, retest status, age, years of schooling, and gender, as well as reasoning and vocabulary, were reliable independent predictors. After 3 yrs, 106 men and 121 women returned for a retest. Analysis of individual differences in 3-yr performance indicated that, once Time 1 performance had been partialed, individual change could be predicted by age or reasoning, but neither variable uniquely accounted for change. Analysis of data of individuals who experienced considerable decline or improvement in 3-yr scores indicated that decline was consistently associated with advanced age. Ramifications for theoretical models in memory research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Molecular analysis of blood group Rh transcripts from a rGr variant

The Rh blood group antigens D, Cc and Ee are encoded by two related genes, RHD and RHCE. The RhG antigen (Rh12) is associated with the expression of RhC and/or RhD, except in rare variant red cells. Here we have determined the molecular basis of G expression in the absence of D and C in the rGr phenotype. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the rG allele resulted either from a segmental DNA exchange between part of exon 2 of the RHce gene and the equivalent region of the RHCE or RHD genes or from a crossing over between positions nt150 and nt178 of the RHce and RHCe genes. The predicted protein encoded by the hybrid rG gene (c-C-e or c-D-e) carries Ile60, Ser68 and Ser103 (as C and D polypeptides); any of these positions appear to be critical in the formation of the G antigen. In addition, Cys16 was found to be important in the phenotypic expression of C.     

Adult age differences in memory for prose: The question of sensitivity to passage structure.

The hypothesis that older adults remember prose less well than young adults because they are less sensitive to the structure of prose passages was investigated in three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, older adults (aged 54–85) recalled less information than younger ones (aged 20–36) from stories having various structures, but there was no evidence that older people were insensitive to story structure. The pattern of recall of information high and low in the story structure was similar for young and old for each story examined. Experiment 3 extended the findings to recall of full-length essays and their summaries. These results suggest that the old are as sensitive to passage structure as the young. In addition, comparisons across the three experiments suggest that other frequently invoked explanations of age deficits in prose recall, such as individual differences in verbal ability and the nature of the materials used, cannot explain our results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)