The Use of Organizational Strategies to Improve Memory for Prose Passages

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Organizational Strategies ◽  
Correct Order ◽  
Prose Passage ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Sufficient Degree ◽  
Incidental Memory

Previous studies have shown that incidental memory for the material increases when older adults are forced to analyze material to the extent necessary to impose an organizational structure. The present experiment sought to extend this finding by examining the effects of enforced organizational strategies on the memory of older adults for textual material. Young and old adults were required to sort the scrambled sentences of a prose passage into the correct order. A subsequent incidental memory test showed that, when older adults were required to make an in-depth analysis to sort the material, their incidental memory for the textual information was approximately equal to that of their younger counterparts. Additional analysis revealed that, although older adults spent more time sorting the material than did younger adults, it was only when required to analyze the material to a sufficient degree that the older adults showed any improvement in memory.

If it’s Mozart, it must be good? The influence of textual information and age on musical appreciation

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Fischinger ◽  
Michaela Kaufmann ◽  
Wolff Schlotz
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Expressive Writing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Musical Piece ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
Musical Characteristics ◽  
Text Information ◽  
Participant Group

In a framing experiment, 170 participants aged 19–80 years were asked to read a description in the fashion of a program note prior to listening (individually via headphones) to a sinfonia by Josef Mysliveček (1737–1781). Divergent versions of this description were created for treatment manipulation, while the participants were not informed about it. Within a 2 × 2 design the descriptions (a) attributed the musical piece to different composers of highly different prominence and prestige. Half of the participant group was informed that they would be listening to the overture to the pastoral opera Ascanio in Alba by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–1791), whereas the other half was informed correctly. The composers’ names were (b) combined with descriptions that applied either an analytic or expressive writing mode. Subsequently collected ratings for liking and a number of perceived musical characteristics were significantly higher when participants had read the expressive compared with the analytic writing mode. Interestingly, younger adults showed higher liking ratings when the music was attributed to Mozart, whereas no significant differences were found in older adults. In sum, this study supports the notion that being exposed to text information prior to listening to music affects perception and appreciation of musical characteristics.

scholarly journals Advanced Aging Enhances the Positivity Effect in Memory: Due to Cognitive Control or Age-Related Decline in Emotional Processing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiko Sakaki ◽  
Jasmine A. L. Raw ◽  
Jamie Findlay ◽  
Mariel Thottam
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Positivity Effect ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Conditioned Responses

Older adults typically remember more positive than negative information compared to their younger counterparts; a phenomenon referred to as the ‘positivity effect.’ According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), the positivity effect derives from the age-related motivational shift towards attaining emotionally meaningful goals which become more important as the perception of future time becomes more limited. Cognitive control mechanisms are critical in achieving such goals and therefore SST predicts that the positivity effect is associated with preserved cognitive control mechanisms in older adults. In contrast, the aging-brain model suggests that the positivity effect is driven by an age-related decline in the amygdala which is responsible for emotional processing and emotional learning. The aim of the current research was to address whether the age-related positivity effect is associated with cognitive control or impaired emotional processing associated with aging. We included older old adults, younger old adults and younger adults and tested their memory for emotional stimuli, cognitive control and amygdala-dependent fear conditioned responses. Consistent with prior research, older adults, relative to younger adults, demonstrate better memory for positive over negative images. We further found that within a group of older adults, the positivity effect increases as a function of age, such that older old adults demonstrated a greater positivity effect compared to younger older adults. Furthermore, the positivity effect in older old adults was associated with preserved cognitive control, supporting the prediction of SST. Contrary to the prediction of the aging-brain model, participants across all groups demonstrated similar enhanced skin conductance responses to fear conditioned stimuli – responses known to rely on the amygdala. Our results support SST and suggest that the positivity effect in older adults is achieved by the preserved cognitive control mechanisms and is not a reflection of the impaired emotional function associated with age.

The Effects of Previously Acquired Knowledge on Memory for Textual Information

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Present Experiment ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Memory Store ◽  
Fictitious Character ◽  
Recognition Condition ◽  
Delayed Recognition

The present experiment was designed to examine how the semantic memory store of previously acquired knowledge affects the ability of young and old adults to retain textual information. The participants were presented with a series of biographical passages and were told they concerned either a famous historical character or a fictitious character. In an immediate recognition test, both young and old adults were able to discriminate between test and distractor sentences. However, in the delayed recognition condition, older adults had considerable difficulty in differentiating between target and distractor sentences, particularly in the famous character story condition. It was thought that as the older adults' episodic memory for the story deteriorated, they were unable to discriminate successfully between their store of previously acquired knowledge and the recently learned textual information.

scholarly journals Mortality Salience Effects on the Life Expectancy Estimates of Older Adults as a Function of Neuroticism

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Maxfield ◽  
Sheldon Solomon ◽  
Tom Pyszczynski ◽  
Jeff Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Young Old

Research has shown that reminders of mortality lead people to engage in defenses to minimize the anxiety such thoughts could arouse. In accord with this notion, younger adults reminded of mortality engage in behaviors aimed at denying vulnerability to death. However, little is known about the effects of mortality reminders on older adults. The present study examined the effect of reminders of death on older adults' subjective life expectancy. Mortality reminders did not significantly impact the life expectancy estimates of old-old adults. Reminders of death did however lead to shorter life expectancy estimates among young-old participants low in neuroticism but longer life expectancy estimates among young-old participants high in neuroticism, suggesting that this group was most defensive in response to reminders of death.

scholarly journals Competence of Older Employees

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-93
Author(s):  
Gabriela-Maria Man ◽  
Mihaela Man
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Physical Stimulation ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Older Employees ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Concern ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Across the world, the number of old adults has grown significantly over recent decades. This has raised a number of questions related to the availability of human resources in the present day. One current concern, visible in society, is related to older employees’ competence and performance. Often, older employees are perceived as less competent and perceived that they perform less well than younger employees, but this image does not meet the reality. Studies related to older employees’ performance show that certain aspects of performance are either equal to, slightly lower, or even higher than those of younger employees. Important elements that make the performance of older adults comparable with the performance of younger adults, among others, include experience, and level of past and present cognitive and physical stimulation; elements with very large interpersonal variability.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Regulation of Experienced and Anticipated Regret for Daily Decisions in Younger and Older Adults in a Swedish One-Week Diary Study

GeroPsych ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pär Bjälkebring ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll ◽  
Boo Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Anticipated Regret ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Decision Regret ◽  
Diary Method ◽  
Regulation Strategies

Regret and regret regulation were studied using a weeklong web-based diary method. 108 participants aged 19 to 89 years reported regret for a decision made and a decision to be made. They also reported the extent to which they used strategies to prevent or regulate decision regret. Older adults reported both less experienced and anticipated regret compared to younger adults. The lower level of experienced regret in older adults was mediated by reappraisal of the decision. The lower level of anticipated regret was mediated by delaying the decision, and expecting regret in older adults. It is suggested that the lower level of regret observed in older adults is partly explained by regret prevention and regulation strategies.

Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽  
Derek M. Isaacowitz
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

Slow Down You’re Moving Too Fast

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Lang ◽  
Nancy Schwartz ◽  
Sharon Mayell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Difference

The study reported here compared how younger and older adults processed the same set of media messages which were selected to vary on two factors, arousing content and valence. Results showed that older and younger adults had similar arousal responses but different patterns of attention and memory. Older adults paid more attention to all messages than did younger adults. However, this attention did not translate into greater memory. Older and younger adults had similar levels of memory for slow-paced messages, but younger adults outperformed older adults significantly as pacing increased, and the difference was larger for arousing compared with calm messages. The differences found are in line with predictions made based on the cognitive-aging literature.

Generation and Associative Encoding in Young and Old Adults

2008 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Taconnat ◽  
Charlotte Froger ◽  
Mathilde Sacher ◽  
Michel Isingrini
Keyword(s):  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Generation Effect ◽  
Elderly Adults ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Strength Of Association ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. The generation effect (i.e., better recall of the generated items than the read items) was investigated with a between-list design in young and elderly participants. The generation task difficulty was manipulated by varying the strength of association between cues and targets. Overall, strong associates were better recalled than weak associates. However, the results showed different generation effect patterns according to strength of association and age, with a greater generation effect for weak associates in younger adults only. These findings suggest that generating weak associates leads to more elaborated encoding, but that elderly adults cannot use this elaborated encoding as well as younger adults to recall the target words at test.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document