Older adults catch up to younger adults on a learning and memory task that involves collaborative social interaction

Abstract Background Numerous studies have reported that the repeated presentation of a stimulus leads to an increase in positive affect towards the stimulus itself (the so-called mere exposure effect). Here, we evaluate whether changes in liking due to repetition may have a differential impact on subsequent memories in younger and older adults. Method In two experiments, younger and older adults were asked to rate a series of nonwords (Experiment 1) or unfamiliar neutral faces (Experiment 2) in terms of how much they like them and then presented with a surprise yes–no recognition memory task. At study, items were repeated either consecutively (massed presentation) or with a lag of 6 intervening items (spaced presentation). Results In both experiments, participants rated spaced repeated items more positively than massed items, i.e. they liked them most. Moreover, older adults remembered spaced stimuli that they liked most better than younger adults. Conclusions The findings are discussed in accordance with the mechanisms underlying positivity effects in memory and the effect of repetition on memory encoding.

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Does working memory protect against auditory distraction in older adults?

BMC Geriatrics ◽

10.1186/s12877-020-01909-w ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yatin Mahajan ◽

Jeesun Kim ◽

Chris Davis

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Correct Response ◽

Response Times ◽

Memory Task ◽

Past Research ◽

Error Rates ◽

Visual Task ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Younger Adults

Abstract Background Past research indicates that when younger adults are engaged in a visual working memory task, they are less distracted by novel auditory stimuli than when engaged in a visual task that does not require working memory. The current study aimed to determine whether working memory affords the same protection to older adults. Method We examined behavioral and EEG responses in 16 younger and 16 older adults to distractor sounds when the listeners performed two visual tasks; one that required working memory (W1) and the other that did not (W0). Auditory distractors were presented in an oddball paradigm, participants were exposed to either standard tones (600 Hz: 80%) or various novel environmental sounds (20%). Results It was found that: 1) when presented with novel vs standard sounds, older adults had faster correct response times in the W1 visual task than in the W0 task, indicating that they were less distracted by the novel sound; there was no difference in error rates. Younger adults did not show a task effect for correct response times but made slightly more errors when a novel sound was presented in the W1 task compared to the W0 task. 2) In older adults (but not the younger adults), the amplitude of N1 was smaller in the W1 condition compared to the W0 condition. 3) The working memory manipulation had no effect on MMN amplitude in older adults. 4) For the W1 compared to W0 task, the amplitude of P3a was attenuated for the older adults but not for the younger adults. Conclusions These results suggest that during the working memory manipulation older adults were able to engage working memory to reduce the processing of task-irrelevant sounds.

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What affects the magnitude of age-related dual-task costs in working memory? The role of stimulus domain and access to semantic representations

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820970744 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 174702182097074

Author(s):

Agnieszka J Jaroslawska ◽

Stephen Rhodes ◽

Clément Belletier ◽

Jason M Doherty ◽

Nelson Cowan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Dual Task ◽

Memory Task ◽

Semantic Representations ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Task Effects ◽

Concurrent Processing ◽

Age Related

Although there is evidence that the effect of including a concurrent processing demand on the storage of information in working memory is disproportionately larger for older than younger adults, not all studies show this age-related impairment, and the critical factors responsible for any such impairment remain elusive. Here we assess whether domain overlap between storage and processing activities, and access to semantic representations, are important determinants of performance in a sample of younger and older adults ( N = 119). We developed four versions of a processing task by manipulating the type of stimuli involved (either verbal or non-verbal) and the decision that participants had to make about the stimuli presented on the screen. Participants either had to perform a spatial judgement, in deciding whether the verbal or non-verbal item was presented above or below the centre of the screen, or a semantic judgement, in deciding whether the stimulus refers to something living or not living. The memory task was serial-ordered recall of visually presented letters. The study revealed a large increase in age-related memory differences when concurrent processing was required. These differences were smaller when storage and processing activities both used verbal materials. Dual-task effects on processing were also disproportionate for older adults. Age differences in processing performance appeared larger for tasks requiring spatial decisions rather than semantic decisions. We discuss these findings in relation to three competing frameworks of working memory and the extant literature on cognitive ageing.

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Physical Activity Is Positively Associated with Episodic Memory in Aging

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society ◽

10.1017/s1355617715000910 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (10) ◽

pp. 780-790 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Scott M. Hayes ◽

Michael L. Alosco ◽

Jasmeet P. Hayes ◽

Margaret Cadden ◽

Kristina M. Peterson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Older Adults ◽

Executive Function ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Neuropsychological Testing ◽

Memory Task ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Relational Memory ◽

Younger Adults

AbstractAging is associated with performance reductions in executive function and episodic memory, although there is substantial individual variability in cognition among older adults. One factor that may be positively associated with cognition in aging is physical activity. To date, few studies have objectively assessed physical activity in young and older adults, and examined whether physical activity is differentially associated with cognition in aging. Young (n=29, age 18–31 years) and older adults (n=31, ages 55–82 years) completed standardized neuropsychological testing to assess executive function and episodic memory capacities. An experimental face-name relational memory task was administered to augment assessment of episodic memory. Physical activity (total step count and step rate) was objectively assessed using an accelerometer, and hierarchical regressions were used to evaluate relationships between cognition and physical activity. Older adults performed more poorly on tasks of executive function and episodic memory. Physical activity was positively associated with a composite measure of visual episodic memory and face-name memory accuracy in older adults. Physical activity associations with cognition were independent of sedentary behavior, which was negatively correlated with memory performance. Physical activity was not associated with cognitive performance in younger adults. Physical activity is positively associated with episodic memory performance in aging. The relationship appears to be strongest for face-name relational memory and visual episodic memory, likely attributable to the fact that these tasks make strong demands on the hippocampus. The results suggest that physical activity relates to cognition in older, but not younger adults. (JINS, 2015, 21, 780–790)

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Spontaneous Distractor Reactivation With Age: Evidence for Bound Target-Distractor Representations in Memory

Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0956797620951125 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 31 (10) ◽

pp. 1315-1324

Author(s):

Tarek Amer ◽

K. W. Joan Ngo ◽

Jennifer C. Weeks ◽

Lynn Hasher

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Attentional Control ◽

Memory Task ◽

Irrelevant Information ◽

Distractor Word ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Present Evidence ◽

Incoming Information ◽

Memory Representations ◽

Task Irrelevant

Reduced attentional control with age is associated with the processing and maintenance of task-irrelevant information in memory. Yet the nature of these memory representations remains unclear. We present evidence that, relative to younger adults ( n = 48), older adults ( n = 48) both (a) store simultaneously presented target and irrelevant information as rich, bound memory representations and (b) spontaneously reactivate irrelevant information when presented with previously associated targets. In a three-stage implicit reactivation paradigm, re-presenting a target picture that was previously paired with a distractor word spontaneously reactivated the previously associated word, making it become more accessible than an unreactivated distractor word in a subsequent implicit memory task. The accessibility of reactivated words, indexed by priming, was also greater than the degree of distractor priming shown by older adults in a control condition ( n = 48). Thus, reduced attentional control influences the processing and representation of incoming information.

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Social Associative Learning and Trust Formation Across Adulthood

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1834 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 558-558

Author(s):

Kendra Seaman ◽

Alexander Christensen ◽

Katherine Senn ◽

Jessica Cooper ◽

Brittany Cassidy

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Computational Modeling ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Social Cues ◽

Reward Processing ◽

Trust Game ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Trust Formation ◽

Over Time

Abstract Trust is a key component of social interaction. Older adults, however, often exhibit excessive trust relative to younger adults. One explanation is that older adults may learn to trust differently than younger adults. Here, we report a study examining how younger (N=36) and older adults (N=37) learn to trust over time. Participants completed a classic iterative trust game with three partners (15 trials each). Younger and older adults shared similar amounts but there were differences in how they shared that money. Compared to younger adults, older adults invested more with untrustworthy partners and less with trustworthy partners. As a group, older adults displayed less learning than younger adults and computational modeling suggests that older adults used different learning strategies. These findings suggest that older adults attend to and learn from social cues differently from younger adults. Neuroimaging results focused on reward processing will also be discussed.

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Working Memory for Complex Scenes: Age Differences in Frontal and Hippocampal Activations

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892903322598094 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 15 (8) ◽

pp. 1122-1134 ◽

Cited By ~ 99

Author(s):

Denise C. Park ◽

Robert C. Welsh ◽

Christy Marshuetz ◽

Angela H. Gutchess ◽

Joseph Mikels ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Age Differences ◽

Memory Task ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Behavioral Equivalence ◽

Probe Task ◽

Complex Scenes ◽

Left And Right ◽

Older Subjects

Age differences in frontal and hippocampal activations in working memory were investigated during a maintenance and subsequent probe interval in an event-related fMRI design. Younger and older adults either viewed or maintained photographs of real-world scenes (extended visual or maintenance conditions) over a 4-sec interval before responding to a probe fragment from the studied picture. Behavioral accuracy was largely equivalent across age and conditions on the probe task, but underlying neural activations differed. Younger but not older adults showed increased left anterior hippocampal activations in the extended visual compared with the maintenance condition. Onthesubsequent probeinterval, however, older adultsshowed more left and right inferior frontal activations than younger adults. The increased frontal activations at probe in older adults may have been compensatory for the decreased hippocampal activations during maintenance, but alternatively could have reflected the increased difficulty of the probe task for the older subjects. Thus, we demonstrate qualitatively different engagement of both frontal and hippocampal structures in older adults in a working memory task, despite behavioral equivalence.

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Influence of Aging on the Neural Correlates of Autobiographical, Episodic, and Semantic Memory Retrieval

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00079 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (12) ◽

pp. 4150-4163 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Marie St-Laurent ◽

Hervé Abdi ◽

Hana Burianová ◽

Cheryl L. Grady

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Semantic Memory ◽

Memory Retrieval ◽

Memory Task ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Partial Least Square ◽

Least Square ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related

We used fMRI to assess the neural correlates of autobiographical, semantic, and episodic memory retrieval in healthy young and older adults. Participants were tested with an event-related paradigm in which retrieval demand was the only factor varying between trials. A spatio-temporal partial least square analysis was conducted to identify the main patterns of activity characterizing the groups across conditions. We identified brain regions activated by all three memory conditions relative to a control condition. This pattern was expressed equally in both age groups and replicated previous findings obtained in a separate group of younger adults. We also identified regions whose activity differentiated among the different memory conditions. These patterns of differentiation were expressed less strongly in the older adults than in the young adults, a finding that was further confirmed by a barycentric discriminant analysis. This analysis showed an age-related dedifferentiation in autobiographical and episodic memory tasks but not in the semantic memory task or the control condition. These findings suggest that the activation of a common memory retrieval network is maintained with age, whereas the specific aspects of brain activity that differ with memory content are more vulnerable and less selectively engaged in older adults. Our results provide a potential neural mechanism for the well-known age differences in episodic/autobiographical memory, and preserved semantic memory, observed when older adults are compared with younger adults.

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Validating Age-Related Functional Imaging Changes in Verbal Working Memory with Acute Stroke

Behavioural Neurology ◽

10.1155/2011/652073 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 187-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Timothy B. Meier ◽

Lin Naing ◽

Lisa E. Thomas ◽

Veena A. Nair ◽

Argye E. Hillis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Acute Stroke ◽

Functional Imaging ◽

Memory Task ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Stroke Patients ◽

Younger Adults

Functional imaging studies consistently find that older adults recruit bilateral brain regions in cognitive tasks that are strongly lateralized in younger adults, a characterization known as the Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults model. While functional imaging displays what brain areas are active during tasks, it cannot demonstrate what brain regions are necessary for task performance. We used behavioral data from acute stroke patients to test the hypothesis that older adults need both hemispheres for a verbal working memory task that is predominantly left-lateralized in younger adults. Right-handed younger (age ≥ 50,n= 7) and older adults (age > 50,n= 21) with acute unilateral stroke, as well as younger (n= 6) and older (n= 13) transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients, performed a self-paced verbal item-recognition task. Older patients with stroke to either hemisphere had a higher frequency of deficits in the verbal working memory task compared to older TIA patients. Additionally, the deficits in older stroke patients were mainly in retrieval time while the deficits in younger stroke patients were mainly in accuracy. These data suggest that bihemispheric activity is necessary for older adults to successfully perform a verbal working memory task.

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Relating resting EEG power spectra to age-related differences in cognitive performance: An observational pilot study

10.1101/2021.02.12.21251655 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

A. Pathania ◽

M. Clark ◽

R. Cowan ◽

M. Euler ◽

K. Duff ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Power Spectrum ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Eeg Power Spectrum ◽

Age Related ◽

Eeg Power

AbstractBackgroundPrevious research has shown that the slope of the electroencephalography (EEG) power spectrum mediates the difference between older and younger adults on a visuo-spatial working memory task. The present study sought to replicate and extend that work using a larger sample and a validated set of neuropsychological tests: The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS).MethodsForty-four participants (21 younger adults, 23 older adults) completed a battery of cognitive and motor tasks that included the RBANS. EEG data were collected both during rest and on-task. Excluding the alpha-band, RBANS scores were regressed onto the slope of the resting EEG power spectrum, controlling for age and using robust mediation analysis.ResultsOlder adults performed reliably lower on the RBANS composite and the Coding, List Recall, List Recognition, and Figure Recall subtests. However, boot-strapped mediation models only showed a mediating effect of the spectral slope on RBANS composite and the Coding subtest.ConclusionsThe resting slope of the EEG power spectrum mediated age-related differences in cognition in the current study, which replicates prior work and is consistent with the neural noise hypothesis of aging. In extending this work, it was shown that these effects are strongest in tasks requiring speeded processing and/or executive functions, whereas this effect was weaker (to absent) for delayed memory, even though age-related differences were present. This pilot study warrants further exploration of the EEG power spectrum in age-related cognitive decline.

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