Aging and Encoding in Memory: False Alarms and Decision Criteria in a Word-Pair Recognition Task

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Isingrini ◽  
Roger Fontaine ◽  
Laurence Taconnat ◽  
Agnes Duportal
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
False Alarm ◽  
False Alarm Rate ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Memory Strength ◽  
Decision Criteria ◽  
Age Related

Employing a false alarm recognition procedure with learning of highly associated word pairs, an experiment was conducted to examine the hypothesis of an age-related deficit in the distinctiveness of encoding. The evolution of the false alarm rate and of the C decision criteria was observed across three age groups, young adults, older adults, and older-older adults. The results show 1) no age differences on C decision criteria, indicating that the increase in FA with age is not related to a subject compensation strategy but is probably due to a failure in memory strength, and 2) that older respondents produced significantly more false alarms to distractors related to target items than the young respondents did but that they did not differ in their false alarm rate for unrelated distractors. This finding is interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of a failure with age to encode target items in a sufficiently elaborate or distinctive fashion. For the older-older respondents the data showed an increase in all false alarms indexes, suggesting that the encoding deficit gets worse in late adulthood.

scholarly journals Age Differences in the Required Coefficient of Friction During Level Walking Do Not Exist When Experimentally-Controlling Speed and Step Length

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis E. Anderson ◽  
Christopher T. Franck ◽  
Michael L. Madigan
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Coefficient Of Friction ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Step Length ◽  
Age Difference ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
Positive Effect

The effects of gait speed and step length on the required coefficient of friction (COF) confound the investigation of age-related differences in required COF. The goals of this study were to investigate whether age differences in required COF during self-selected gait persist when experimentally-controlling speed and step length, and to determine the independent effects of speed and step length on required COF. Ten young and 10 older healthy adults performed gait trials under five gait conditions: self-selected, slow and fast speeds without controlling step length, and slow and fast speeds while controlling step length. During self-selected gait, older adults walked with shorter step lengths and exhibited a lower required COF. Older adults also exhibited a lower required COF when walking at a controlled speed without controlling step length. When both age groups walked with the same speed and step length, no age difference in required COF was found. Thus, speed and step length can have a large influence on studies investigating age-related differences in required COF. It was also found that speed and step length have independent and opposite effects on required COF, with step length having a strong positive effect on required COF, and speed having a weaker negative effect.

scholarly journals ANGER, LOVE, SADNESS: DO EMOTION WORDS HAVE THE SAME SEMANTIC MEANING ACROSS AGE-GROUPS?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S841-S842
Author(s):  
Madeline J Nichols ◽  
Jennifer A Bellingtier ◽  
Frances Buttelmann
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
Emotion Word ◽  
Age Related

Abstract Every day we use emotion words to describe our experiences, but past research finds that the meanings of these words can vary. Furthermore, historical shifts in language use and experiential knowledge of the emotions may contribute to age-differences in what these emotion words convey. We examined age-related differences in the valence, arousal, and expression connoted by the words anger, love, and sadness. We predicted age-related differences in the semantic meanings of the words would emerge such that older adults would more clearly differentiate the positivity/negativity of the words, whereas younger adults would report higher endorsement for the conveyed arousal and expression. Participants included American and German older adults (N=61; mean age=68.98) and younger adults (N=77; mean age=20.77). Using the GRID instrument (Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, 2013), they rated each emotion word for its valence, arousal, and expression when used by a speaker of the participant’s native language. Across emotions and dimensions, older adults were generally more moderate in their understanding of emotion words. For example, German older adults rated anger and sadness as suggesting the speaker felt less bad and more good than the younger adults. American older adults rated love as connoting the speaker felt more bad and less good than younger adults. Arousal ratings were higher for German younger, as opposed to older, adults. Cultural differences were most pronounced for sadness such that German participants gave more moderate answers than American participants. Overall, our research suggests that there are age-related differences in the understanding of emotion words.

scholarly journals Auditory hallucinations, top-down processing and language perception: a general population study

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (16) ◽  
pp. 2772-2780 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. de Boer ◽  
M. M. J. Linszen ◽  
J. de Vries ◽  
M. J. L. Schutte ◽  
M. J. H. Begemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
False Alarm ◽  
False Alarm Rate ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Auditory Hallucinations ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Visual Hallucinations ◽  
Top Down ◽  
General Population Study ◽  
Language Perception

AbstractBackgroundStudies investigating the underlying mechanisms of hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia suggest that an imbalance in top-down expectations v. bottom-up processing underlies these errors in perception. This study evaluates this hypothesis by testing if individuals drawn from the general population who have had auditory hallucinations (AH) have more misperceptions in auditory language perception than those who have never hallucinated.MethodsWe used an online survey to determine the presence of hallucinations. Participants filled out the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences and participated in an auditory verbal recognition task to assess both correct perceptions (hits) and misperceptions (false alarms). A hearing test was performed to screen for hearing problems.ResultsA total of 5115 individuals from the general Dutch population participated in this study. Participants who reported AH in the week preceding the test had a higher false alarm rate in their auditory perception compared with those without such (recent) experiences. The more recent the AH were experienced, the more mistakes participants made. While the presence of verbal AH (AVH) was predictive for false alarm rate in auditory language perception, the presence of non-verbal or visual hallucinations were not.ConclusionsThe presence of AVH predicted false alarm rate in auditory language perception, whereas the presence of non-verbal auditory or visual hallucinations was not, suggesting that enhanced top-down processing does not transfer across modalities. More false alarms were observed in participants who reported more recent AVHs. This is in line with models of enhanced influence of top-down expectations in persons who hallucinate.

scholarly journals Encoding and retrieval eye movements mediate age differences in pattern completion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordana Wynn ◽  
Bradley Buchsbaum ◽  
Jennifer Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Memory Errors ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Pattern Completion ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
New Information ◽  
Encoding And Retrieval

Older adults often mistake new information as ‘old’, yet, the mechanisms underlying this response bias remain unclear. Typically, false alarms by older adults are thought to reflect pattern completion – the retrieval of a previously encoded stimulus in response to partial input. However, other work suggests that age-related retrieval errors can be accounted for by deficient encoding processes. In the present study, we used eye movement (EM) monitoring to quantify older adults’ pattern completion bias as a function of EMs during both encoding and partially cued retrieval. Analysis of EMs revealed reduced encoding-related differentiation (i.e., more similar EMs across encoded images) and increased retrieval-related reinstatement (i.e., more similar EMs across encoding and retrieval) by older relative to younger adults, with both encoding and retrieval EMs predicting false alarms. These findings indicate that age-related changes in both encoding and retrieval processes, indexed by EMs, underlie older adults’ increased vulnerability to memory errors.

scholarly journals Virtual Hand Illusion in younger and older adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 205566832110593
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Campos ◽  
Graziella El-Khechen Richandi ◽  
Marge Coahran ◽  
Lindsey E. Fraser ◽  
Babak Taati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Tactile Feedback ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Localization Accuracy ◽  
Virtual Hand ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Introduction Embodiment involves experiencing ownership over our body and localizing it in space and is informed by multiple senses (visual, proprioceptive and tactile). Evidence suggests that embodiment and multisensory integration may change with older age. The Virtual Hand Illusion (VHI) has been used to investigate multisensory contributions to embodiment, but has never been evaluated in older adults. Spatio-temporal factors unique to virtual environments may differentially affect the embodied perceptions of older and younger adults. Methods Twenty-one younger (18–35 years) and 19 older (65+ years) adults completed the VHI paradigm. Body localization was measured at baseline and again, with subjective ownership ratings, following synchronous and asynchronous visual-tactile interactions. Results Higher ownership ratings were observed in the synchronous relative to the asynchronous condition, but no effects on localization/drift were found. No age differences were observed. Localization accuracy was biased in both age groups when the virtual hand was aligned with the real hand, indicating a visual mislocalization of the virtual hand. Conclusions No age-related differences in the VHI were observed. Mislocalization of the hand in VR occurred for both groups, even when congruent and aligned; however, tactile feedback reduced localization biases. Our results expand the current understanding of age-related changes in multisensory embodiment within virtual environments.

Looking the same, but remembering differently: Preserved eye-movement synchrony with age during movie-watching

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Davis ◽  
Emily Chemnitz ◽  
Tyler K. Collins ◽  
Linda Geerligs ◽  
Karen L. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
False Information ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Movement Synchrony

Naturalistic stimuli (e.g., movies) provide the opportunity to study lifelike experiences in the lab. While young adults respond to these stimuli in a highly synchronized manner (as indexed by intersubject correlations [ISC] in their neural activity), older adults respond more idiosyncratically. Here, we examine whether eye movement synchrony (eye-ISC) also declines with age during movie-watching and whether it relates to memory for the movie. Our results show no age-related decline in eye-ISC, suggesting that age differences in neural ISC are not caused by differences in viewing patterns. Both age groups recalled the same number of episodic details from the movie, however, older adults recalled more semantic and false information. In both age groups, more recall of false information related to lower eye-ISC. Finally, older adults showed better cued-recall than younger adults across event boundaries, suggesting that older adults may form broader associations across events when encoding everyday experiences.

Age moderation of the association between negative subsequent memory effects and episodic memory performance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Pruitt ◽  
Lingfei Tang ◽  
Jessica Hayes ◽  
Noa Ofen ◽  
Jessica S. Damoiseaux
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Memory Formation ◽  
Memory Effects ◽  
Age Related

Negative subsequent memory effects in functional MRI studies of memory formation, have been linked to individual differences in memory performance, yet the effect of age on this association is currently unclear. To provide insight into the brain systems related to memory across the lifespan, we examined functional neuroimaging data acquired during episodic memory formation and behavioral performance from a memory recognition task in a sample of 109 participants, including three developmental age groups (8-12, 13-17, 18-25 year-olds) and one additional group of older adults (55-85 year-olds). Young adults showed the highest memory performance and strongest negative subsequent memory effects, while older adults showed reduced negative subsequent memory effects relative to young adults. Across the sample, negative subsequent memory effects were associated with better memory performance, and there was a significant interaction between negative subsequent memory effects and memory performance by age groups. Posthoc analyses revealed that this effect was driven by a strong association between negative subsequent memory effects and memory performance in adolescents and young adults, but not in children and older adults. These findings suggest that negative subsequent memory effects may differentially support memory performance across a lifespan trajectory characterized by developmental maturation and age-related deterioration.

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

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.

scholarly journals Interindividual Age Differences in Personality Structure

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emorie D Beck ◽  
David M Condon ◽  
Joshua James Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Personality Structure ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Age Related

Most investigations in the structure of personality traits do not adequately address age; instead they presuppose a constant structure across the lifespan. Further, few studies look at the structure of personality traits a-theoretically, often neglecting to examine the relationship among indicators within a trait (coherence) and across traits (differentiation). Using a network approach, the present study examines (1) age differences in differentiation and coherence, (2) the similarity between the Big Five and network structures, and (3) the consistency of network structure across age groups in a large, cross-sectional sample. Results indicate that coherence shows early gains in adolescence with few changes across the lifespan, while differentiation mostly weakens across adulthood. The result of these age-related changes is that Big Five indicators only parallel the Big Five structure among young but not older adults. The structure of young adults tends to be quite similar while the network structures of older adults appear to greatly differ from one another. These results suggest that older adults have a different structure of personality than younger adults and suggest that future research should not assume consistency in personality structure across the lifespan.

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