The role of reduced working memory storage and processing resources in the associative memory deficit of older adults: simulation studies with younger adults

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoko Hara ◽  
Moshe Naveh-Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Deficit ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Simulation Studies ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Processing Resources

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

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.

scholarly journals The role of reduced working memory resources in the associative deficit of older adults

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Yoko Hara
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Processing Resources

Previous research indicates that older adults show problems with remembering associations compared to young adults, yet they remember single pieces of information about as well as young adults do (see Naveh-Benjamin, 2000). The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether reduced working memory (WM) resources affect associative memory and whether such a reduction can account for older adults’ associative deficit. Three experiments investigated whether we can simulate an associative deficit in young adults by using secondary tasks that increase their WM loads (either via increasing storage or processing demands of the secondary task) during a primary task in which they were required to learn name-face pairs and then remember the names, the faces, and the name-face associations. Results show that reducing both the storage and the processing resources of WM each produced an associative deficit in young adults. However, further increasing the demands of the secondary task for WM processing resources gradually increased the size of the associative deficit, whereas increasing the demands of the secondary task for WM storage resources did not differentially affect associative memory performance. Furthermore, younger adults with low-WM span or low-online processing showed an associative deficit under full attention conditions compared to young adults with high-WM span or high-online processing. High-WM span/processing individuals also showed an associative deficit when the processing or storage demands on WM increased. In summary, the present studies showed that one possible reason older adults have an associative deficit is a reduction in their WM resources, especially those related to WM processing.

scholarly journals A simulation of older adults’ associative memory deficit using structural process interference in young adults

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258574
Author(s):  
Yafit Oscar-Strom ◽  
Jonathan Guez
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Memory Deficit ◽  
Associative Recognition ◽  
Secondary Tasks ◽  
Associative Deficit

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.

scholarly journals Emotion-enhanced binding of numerical information in younger and older adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander LM Siegel ◽  
Rachel S Graup ◽  
Alan D Castel
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Negative Information ◽  
Memory Deficit ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Numerical Information ◽  
Neutral Context ◽  
Neutral Information ◽  
Negative Context ◽  
Types Of Information

There are documented deficits in older adults’ abilities to bind numerical information to other types of information, perhaps due to the arbitrariness and specificity of numbers. Although some studies have found that memory for associative details is more accurate for emotionally salient information than for emotionally neutral information, other research has failed to find this benefit. We investigated whether older adults’ associative memory deficit for numerical information may be reduced when information is encountered in an emotionally salient context. We presented younger and older adults with numerical information in a sentence that was emotionally positive, negative, or neutral and later asked them to recall the numbers when given their corresponding context. Although younger adults recalled more information than older adults, both groups of participants recalled more numbers in emotionally valenced as compared with emotionally neutral contexts, with the most accurate memory for numbers in the highly arousing negative context. Both groups of participants also rated the negative information as more important and easier to remember. These results provide evidence that emotion-enhanced binding is consistent between younger and older adults in some contexts and that memory for specific and arbitrary numerical information may be more accurate in an emotionally salient as compared with emotionally neutral context.

The associative memory deficit of older adults: The role of strategy utilization.

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Naveh-Benjamin ◽  
Tamar Keshet Brav ◽  
Oded Levy
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Deficit
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