Semantic Memory Functioning Across the Adult Life Span

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Bäckman ◽  
Lars-Göran Nilsson

Using data from the first wave of data collection in the Betula project, this research examined semantic memory performance in adulthood and old age (N = 1000). The Betula project is a 10-year longitudinal study on memory and health that involves participants from 10 age groups: 35, 40, 45, …, and 80 years of age. Results from tests of verbal fluency and vocabulary indicated no performance variation between 35 and 50 years of age, followed by a gradual deterioration with increasing age. In a test of general knowledge, only the two oldest cohorts showed deficits. When educational level was statistically controlled, a different pattern of results was seen: the middle-aged adults performed at the highest level and, with the exception of one fluency test, no age-related deficits were observed before 75 years of age. These results suggest that, although there may be age-related deficits in semantic memory in the general population, education appears to be a more important factor than adult age per se for semantic memory functioning. The data support the view that activation of preexisting memory representations is relatively unaffected by the adult aging process, and demonstrate the pivotal role of cultural factors (e.g., education, verbal experience) in proficient semantic memory functioning.

1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald D. Davis ◽  
Douglas D. Friedrich

Young, middle-aged, and older adults were assessed on tasks operationally defining short-term memory structural limitations and process abilities. The tasks were typical of previously related memory research with children and adolescents: monaural and dichotic word lists of variant association structure and rate of presentation. Although a number of minor chronological age-related differences were noted between monaural and dichotic word list performances, the findings indicated both structural capacity and organizational strategy deficiencies over successive adult age groups. In addition, older adults indicated significantly more heterogeneity of performance variance, both between and within age group comparisons. Results were summarized within the Cattell-Horn developmental model of fluid and crystallized abilities.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka J Jaroslawska ◽  
Stephen Rhodes

Normal adult aging is known to be associated with lower performance on tasks assessing the short-term storage of information. However, whether or not there are additional age-related deficits associated with concurrent storage and processing demands within working memory remains unclear. Methodological differences across studies are considered critical factors responsible for the variability in the magnitude of the reported age effects. Here we synthesized comparisons of younger and older adults' performance on tasks measuring storage alone against those combining storage with concurrent processing of information. We also considered the influence of task-related moderator variables. Meta-analysis of effect sizes revealed a small but disproportionate effect of processing on older adults' memory performance. Moderator analysis indicated that equating single task storage performance across age groups (titration) and the nature of the stimulus material were important determinants of memory accuracy. Titration of storage task difficulty was found to lead to smaller, and non-significant, age-differences in dual task costs. These results were corroborated by supplementary Brinley and state-trace analyses. We discuss these findings in relation to the extant literature and current working memory theory as well as possibilities for future research to address the residual heterogeneity in effect sizes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 42-43
Author(s):  
J. C. Kavitha Latha ◽  
R. Varalakshmi

Adolescents are dened as the young people between the age groups of 10 and 19 years as per the WHO records. Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adult life as it is regarded as the intermediate period between the childhood age and the adult age. Menstruation occurs every month periodically except during pregnancy. The maintenance of menstrual hygienic methods is a very challenging task to the adolescent girls. Social prohibitions and traditional beliefs blocked the access to get the right kind of information to adolescent girls that led to poor hygiene practices. Menstruation has often been dealt with secrecy in many cultures. Aim: Attitude towards myths and misconceptions among adolescent girls during the menstruation. To assess the attitude regarding myths Objective: and misconceptions among adolescent girls during the menstruation. To examine the level of attitude of adolescent girls towards Myths and Misconceptions Tool: The Tool used for the present study was self structured questionnaire which was developed by the researcher. Results: Many of number of adolescent girls is having low attitude i.e., having many myths and misconceptions towards menstruation and very few sample is having high attitude which is indicating that minimal sample is not having negative attitude towards the myths and misconceptions. Sample: Sample of the present study consists of 300 adolescent girls from government vocational colleges in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh State. There are signicant differences between age, religion, educational quali Conclusion: cations of mother's, type of family and mode of communication among adolescent girls with regard to their attitude towards myths and misconceptions during the menstruation. There is low level of attitude towards the myths and misconceptions among adolescent girls during the menstruation


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Umansky ◽  
Nili Tickotsky ◽  
Silvina Friedlander-Barenboim ◽  
Sarit Faibis ◽  
Moti Moskovitz

Objective: The present study aimed to determine if the prevalence of pre-eruptive intracoronal radiolucent defects is higher for young age groups, in which there are more unerupted teeth. Study design: A retrospective study of panoramic and bitewing radiographs was conducted. An inclusion criterion was the presence of un-erupted permanent teeth with a formed and clearly visible crown. Age groups were: young (6–8 years), intermediate (9–12 years) and adults (13–53 years). Significance level was set at p≤0.05. Results: Thirteen (3.9%) pre-eruptive lesions were detected in 335 records. No lesions were found in the young group (7.4%), in the intermediate and adult age groups six and seven lesions were found, respectively. In most cases the pre-eruptive lesion was found in a third molar. Conclusion: The prevalence of pre-eruptive intracoronal lesions was not higher for young age groups. The prevalence of pre-eruptive intra coronal radiolucent lesions is 3.9%, irrespective of age.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selene Cansino ◽  
Frine Torres-Trejo ◽  
Cinthya Estrada-Manilla ◽  
Adriana Flores-Mendoza ◽  
Gerardo Ramírez-Pérez ◽  
...  

The aim of the study was to identify nutrients that have the ability to impact brain functioning and, as a consequence, influence episodic memory. In particular, we examined recollection, the ability to recall details of previous experiences, which is the episodic memory process most affected as age advances. A sample of 1,550 healthy participants between 21 and 80 years old participated in the study. Nutritional intake was examined through a food frequency questionnaire and software developed to determine the daily consumption of 64 nutrients based on food intake during the last year. Recollection was measured through a computerized source memory paradigm. First, we identified which nutrients influence recollection across the entire adult life span. Then, moderator analyses were conducted by dividing the sample into young (21–40 years old), middle-aged (41–60 years old) and older (61–80 years old) adults to establish in which life stage nutrients influence episodic memory. Across the adult life span, recollection accuracy was shown to benefit from the intake of sodium, heme, vitamin E, niacin, vitamin B6, cholesterol, alcohol, fat, protein, and palmitic, stearic, palmitoleic, oleic, gadoleic, alpha-linoleic and linoleic acid. The effects of energy, maltose, lactose, calcium and several saturated fatty acids on recollection were modulated by age; in older adults, the consumption of these nutrients negatively influenced episodic memory performance, and in middle-aged adults, only lactose had negative effects. Several brain mechanisms that support episodic memory were influenced by specific nutrients, demonstrating the ability of food to enhance or deteriorate episodic memory.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1851-1862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Bender ◽  
Ana M. Daugherty ◽  
Naftali Raz

Advanced age and vascular risk negatively affect episodic memory. The hippocampus (HC) is a complex structure, and little is known about the roles of different HC regions in age-related memory declines. Using data from an ongoing longitudinal study, we investigated whether memory functions are related to volumes of specific HC subregions (CA1-2, CA3-4/dentate gyrus, and subiculum). Furthermore, we inquired if arterial hypertension, a common age-related vascular risk factor, modifies age-related differences in HC regional volumes, concurrent memory performance, and improvement in memory over multiple administrations. Healthy adults (n = 49, 52–82 years old) completed associative recognition and free recall tasks. In grouped path models, covariance structures differed between hypertensive and normotensive participants. Whereas larger CA3-4/dentate gyrus volumes predicted greater improvement in associative memory over repeated tests regardless of vascular risk, CA1-2 volumes were associated with improvement in noun recall only in hypertensive participants. Only among hypertensive participants, CA1-2 volumes negatively related to age and CA3-4/dentate gyrus and CA1-2 volumes were associated with performance at the last measurement occasion. These findings suggest that relatively small regions of the HC may play a role in age-related memory declines and that vascular risk factors associated with advanced age may modify that relationship.


Assessment ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Argyriou ◽  
Miji Um ◽  
Wei Wu ◽  
Melissa A. Cyders

Impulsive personality is a widely used construct for the prediction of multiple clinical problems; however, research has often disregarded important differences in its conceptualization and measurement across age and sex. The goals of this article are to test the invariance of, to compare mean differences in, and to examine the differential validity of the Urgency (negative), Premeditation (lack of), Perseverance (lack of), Sensation Seeking, with added subscale of Positive Urgency (UPPS-P) Impulsive Behavior Scale across adult age and sex. The data for this study were obtained from 799 participants in the Nathan Kline Institute’s Rockland Sample. Multigroup invariance analysis indicated full invariance of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale across age and sex. However, invariance analysis as a function of age using Multiple-Indicators Multiple-Causes modeling identified three items with differential item functioning. Sensation Seeking was higher in males and lower as age increased. In general, age and sex did not moderate the relationships between UPPS-P traits and risk-taking behaviors, with the exception of cannabis use. Overall, the results of this study support that the UPPS-P scale can be validly used to assess and compare impulsive personality across the adult life span and sex. We suggest the removal of Items 5, 28, and 51 when using the UPPS-P with older adults to be overly cautious to age invariance effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S257-S257
Author(s):  
Rehab A Sherlala ◽  
Candace M Kammerer ◽  
Allison L Kuipers ◽  
Mary K Wojczynski ◽  
Svetlana Ukraintseva ◽  
...  

Abstract Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and measures of adiposity, such as body mass index (BMI), are associated with susceptibility to age-related diseases. Previous reports of the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI ranged from positive to negative to no relationship, perhaps because previous reports studied different age cohorts. Using data on 4270 participants (aged 24-110 years) from the Long Life Family Study, we investigated the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI overall and by age groups. IGF-1 and BMI were positively correlated in the total sample (β=0.161, r2= 0.0038, p=1.8-05). However, further analyses revealed that the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI varied by age quartile: in the 1st quartile (24-58yo) the relationship was negative (β=−0.204, r2= 0.011, p=0.0008); in the 2nd quartile (59-66yo) the relationship was negative but non-significant (β=−0.069, r2= 0.0012, p=0.28); in the 3rd quartile (67-86yo) the relationship was positive but non-significant (β=0.106, r2= 0.002, p=0.13); and in the 4th quartile (87-110yo) the relationship was positive (β=0.388, r2= 0.019, p=1.2−05). This pattern did not differ by sex. We also detected a similar age-related pattern between IGF-1 and BMI using an independent dataset (NHANES III), comprising 2550 men and women aged 20-90 years. Our results may clarify some of the inconsistency in previous literature about the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI. Additional studies of IGF-1 and adiposity measures are needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms involved.


Author(s):  
Rehab A Sherlala ◽  
Candace M Kammerer ◽  
Allison L Kuipers ◽  
Mary K Wojczynski ◽  
Svetlana V Ukraintseva ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and body mass index (BMI) are both associated with susceptibility to age-related diseases. Reports on the correlation between them have been conflicting, with both positive to negative correlations reported. However, the age ranges of the participants varied widely among these studies. Methods Using data on 4241 participants (aged 24–110) from the Long Life Family Study, we investigated the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI by age groups using regression analysis. Results When stratified by age quartile, the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI varied: in the first quartile (Q1, 20–58 years) the relationship was negative (β = −0.2, p = .002); in Q2 (58–66 years) and Q3 (67–86 years) the relationship was negative (β = −0.07, β = −0.01, respectively) but nonsignificant; and in Q4 (87–110 years) the relationship was positive (β = 0.31, p = .0002). This pattern did not differ by sex. We observed a similar age-related pattern between IGF-1 and BMI among participants in the third National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. Conclusions Our results that the relationship between IGF-1 and BMI differs by age may explain some of the inconsistency in reports about their relationship and encourage additional studies to understand the mechanisms underlying it.


2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 2396-2404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas T. Hills ◽  
Rui Mata ◽  
Andreas Wilke ◽  
Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin

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