Assessing the Associative Memory Deficit of Older Adults in Long-Term and Short-Term/Working Memory

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Naveh-Benjamin ◽  
Tina Chen
2021 ◽  
pp. 089198872110491
Author(s):  
Katie Stypulkowski ◽  
Rachel E. Thayer

More older adults are using cannabis for recreational and/or medical purposes, but most studies examining cognitive function and cannabis use do not include older adults. The current small pilot study sought to compare cognitive function and emotional functioning among adults age 60 and older who were regular, primarily recreational cannabis users ( n = 28) and nonusers ( n = 10). A bimodal distribution was observed among cannabis users such that they had either initiated regular use more recently (“short-term” users; ≤7 years, n = 13) or earlier in life (“long-term” users; ≥19 years, n = 15). Nonusers, short-term, and long-term users were not different in depression, anxiety, or emotion regulation, or alcohol use. Nonusers scored significantly higher than long-term users in executive function. Short-term users scored significantly higher than long-term users in executive function, processing speed, and general cognition. Additionally, greater recent cannabis use frequency was negatively associated with working memory. The current findings suggest that short-term recreational cannabis use does not result in differences in cognitive performance compared to nonusers, which may indicate that short-term use is relatively benign in older adults. However, longer duration of use is associated with poorer processing speed and executive functioning, and more recent cannabis use is associated with poorer working memory, which may impact older adults’ overall cognitive functioning.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258574
Author(s):  
Yafit Oscar-Strom ◽  
Jonathan Guez

Associative memory deficit underlies a part of older adults’ deficient episodic memory due to the reduced ability to bind units of information. In this article we further assess the mechanism underlying this deficit, by assessing the degree to which we can model it in young adults under conditions of divided attention. We shall describe two experiments in this paper; these experiments investigate item and associative recognition in young adults under full- or divided-attention conditions. The secondary tasks employed were N-back like (NBL), which serves as a working memory updating task, and parity judgement and visuospatial (VS) tasks, which serve as non-working memory tasks. The results of both experiments show that only the NBL specifically affected associative recognition, while the other tasks affected item and associative memory to the same degree, indicating a general resource competition. These results presented a convergence of evidence for the associative deficit in older adults by modelling it in young adults.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea Maria Bartsch ◽  
Klaus Oberauer

Free time to attend to and process information in working memory is key in promotingimmediate and delayed retention. One candidate process to cause this benefit is elaboration. Weconducted three experiments with young adults – two of which included older adults – toinvestigate whether free time is used for elaboration, and whether elaboration causes the free-timebenefit. Participants remembered lists of nouns, interleaved with short or long free-time intervals,or with filler words connecting all the nouns into a meaningful sentence to assist elaboration. Foryoung adults, assisted elaboration through sentences, and the additional instruction to form amental image, benefited performance in a working-memory test as much as longer free time, butnot more. In contrast, for a delayed test of long-term memory, the benefits of sentence elaborationexceeded those of longer free time. Older adults did not benefit from assisted elaborations in thedelayed test, providing further evidence that the long-term memory deficit of older adults arises atleast in part from a deficit in elaboration. This elaboration deficit is not driven by a deficit ingenerating richer representations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Potter

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 559-559
Author(s):  
Sara Freed ◽  
Briana Sprague ◽  
Lesley Ross

Abstract Interventions using exercise video games, or exergames, have shown short-term cognitive and physical benefits to older adults, though long-term effects are less promising. Enjoyment of exergames may promote exergame use after the intervention period, though little work has examined older adults’ views of exergames before and after gameplay experience. We invited 20 older adults between 65 and 84 years of age (M=73.30, SD=5.95) to play two Xbox Kinect games, Just Dance and Kinect Sports Rivals, for twenty minutes. In our presentation, we will present qualitative and quantitative findings of this pilot study, including findings that older adults reported that they were not likely to play similar exergames in the future and that they did not find the exergames to be more fun compared to other ways of exercising. We will discuss implications for game design and research relevant to game developers, manufacturers, and researchers. Part of a symposium sponsored by Technology and Aging Interest Group.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 2997-3014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Kowialiewski ◽  
Laurens Van Calster ◽  
Lucie Attout ◽  
Christophe Phillips ◽  
Steve Majerus

Abstract An influential theoretical account of working memory (WM) considers that WM is based on direct activation of long-term memory knowledge. While there is empirical support for this position in the visual WM domain, direct evidence is scarce in the verbal WM domain. This question is critical for models of verbal WM, as the question of whether short-term maintenance of verbal information relies on direct activation within the long-term linguistic knowledge base or not is still debated. In this study, we examined the extent to which short-term maintenance of lexico-semantic knowledge relies on neural activation patterns in linguistic cortices, and this by using a fast encoding running span task for word and nonword stimuli minimizing strategic encoding mechanisms. Multivariate analyses showed specific neural patterns for the encoding and maintenance of word versus nonword stimuli. These patterns were not detectable anymore when participants were instructed to stop maintaining the memoranda. The patterns involved specific regions within the dorsal and ventral pathways, which are considered to support phonological and semantic processing to various degrees. This study provides novel evidence for a role of linguistic cortices in the representation of long-term memory linguistic knowledge during WM processing.


2011 ◽  
pp. 169-183
Author(s):  
Christoph Haffner ◽  
Thorsten Völkel

This chapter introduces the application of concepts for long-term interaction to support long-term relationship in the interactive television (iTV) domain. While classical interaction concepts cover short-term interaction cycles only, theoretical models for long-term interaction and relationships deal with time periods exceeding the human short-term working memory. The user must be supported by memory cues to resume interrupted long-term interactions immediately. The iTV domain offers many long-term interaction scenarios in the context of establishing long-term relationships of recipients and broadcasters. The authors adopt concepts for long-term interaction towards iTV and develop a basic classification of long-term interaction. Three scenarios within the iTV domain illustrate the potential impact for the design of iTV applications.


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