Are There Age Differences in Intraindividual Variability in Working Memory Performance?

Four groups of adults, ages 40 to 70+ years, took the Modified Lag Task which requires that participants remember lists of words and subsequently recall the first, second, or third word from the end of the list. Previously, the task showed convergent validity with the operation span (a complex span measure) and a divergent validity with the digit span (a simple span measure). To establish predictive validity, the present study was designed to assess if this task could separate four age groups in working memory performance. The present study found support for the validity of the Modified Lag Task; however, additional research is warranted to further develop the construct validity of this task.

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Does Metacognitive Monitoring Influence Age Differences in Working Memory Performance?

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e527342012-685 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Dayna R. Touron ◽

Natalie Oransky ◽

Matthew E. Meier ◽

Jarrod C. Hines

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Age Differences ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Metacognitive Monitoring

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Age differences in behavioral and neural correlates of proactive interference: Disentangling the role of overall working memory performance

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.12.023 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 127 ◽

pp. 376-386 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Sandra V. Loosli ◽

Benjamin Rahm ◽

Josef M. Unterrainer ◽

Irina Mader ◽

Cornelius Weiller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Proactive Interference ◽

Age Differences ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Neural Correlates

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Adult Age Differences in Covariation of Motivation and Working Memory Performance: Contrasting Between-Person and Within-Person Findings

Research in Human Development ◽

10.1080/15427600903578177 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 61-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Annette Brose ◽

Florian Schmiedek ◽

Martin Lövdén ◽

Peter C. M. Molenaar ◽

Ulman Lindenberger

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Age Differences ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Adult Age ◽

Adult Age Differences

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Adult age differences in the effects of processing on storage in working memory: A meta-analysis

10.31234/osf.io/x2uk7 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Agnieszka J Jaroslawska ◽

Stephen Rhodes

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Working Memory ◽

Age Differences ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Age Groups ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Future Research ◽

Adult Age ◽

Age Related

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.

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