scholarly journals Age-related changes in visual encoding strategy preferences during a spatial memory task

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislava Segen ◽  
Marios N Avraamides ◽  
Timothy J. Slattery ◽  
Jan Wiener
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Encoding Strategies ◽  
Encoding Strategy

Ageing is associated with declines in spatial memory, however, the source of these deficits remains unclear. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate age-related differences in spatial encoding strategies and the cognitive processes underlying the age-related deficits in spatial memory tasks. To do so we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen. The availability and utility of room-based landmarks was manipulated by removing landmarks, presenting identical landmarks rendering them uninformative, or by presenting unique landmarks that could be used to encode object locations. In the test phase, participants viewed a second picture of the same room taken from the same (0°) or a different perspective (30°) and judged whether the objects occupied the same or different locations in the room. We found that the introduction of perspective shift and swapping of objects between encoding and testing impaired performance in both age groups. Furthermore, our results revealed that although older adults performed the task as well as younger participants, they relied on different visual encoding strategies to solve the task. Specifically, gaze analysis revealed that older adults showed a greater preference towards a more categorical encoding strategy in which they formed relationships between objects and landmarks.

scholarly journals Age-related changes in visual encoding strategy preferences during a spatial memory task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislava Segen ◽  
Marios N. Avraamides ◽  
Timothy J. Slattery ◽  
Jan M. Wiener
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Encoding Strategies ◽  
Encoding Strategy

AbstractAgeing is associated with declines in spatial memory, however, the source of these deficits remains unclear. Here we used eye-tracking to investigate age-related differences in spatial encoding strategies and the cognitive processes underlying the age-related deficits in spatial memory tasks. To do so we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen. The availability and utility of room-based landmarks were manipulated by removing landmarks, presenting identical landmarks rendering them uninformative, or by presenting unique landmarks that could be used to encode object locations. In the test phase, participants viewed a second picture of the same room taken from the same (0°) or a different perspective (30°) and judged whether the objects occupied the same or different locations in the room. We found that the introduction of a perspective shift and swapping of objects between encoding and testing impaired performance in both age groups. Furthermore, our results revealed that although older adults performed the task as well as younger participants, they relied on different visual encoding strategies to solve the task. Specifically, gaze analysis revealed that older adults showed a greater preference towards a more categorical encoding strategy in which they formed relationships between objects and landmarks.

scholarly journals Age-related differences in visual encoding and response strategies contribute to spatial memory deficits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislava Segen ◽  
Marios N Avraamides ◽  
Timothy J. Slattery ◽  
Jan Wiener
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Spatial Configurations ◽  
Encoding Strategies

Successful navigation requires the ability to memorise and recognise the locations of objects across different perspectives. Although these abilities rely on hippocampal functioning that is susceptible to degeneration in older adults, little is known about the effects of ageing on encoding and response strategies that are used to recognise spatial configurations. To investigate this, we asked young and older participants to encode the locations of objects in a virtual room shown as a picture on a computer screen. Then, we asked participants to view a second picture of the same room taken from the same (0°) or a different perspective (45° or 135°), and judge whether the objects occupied the same or different locations. Results revealed that older adults had overall greater difficulty with the task than younger adults and that the introduction of perspective shift between encoding and testing impaired performance in both age groups. With diffusion modelling we also found that older adults adopted a more conservative response strategy while the analysis of gaze patterns revealed an age-related shift in visual encoding strategies with older adults attending to more information when memorising the positions of objects in space.

scholarly journals Biases in object location estimation: the role of camera rotations and translation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislava Segen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Location Estimation ◽  
Object Location ◽  
Systematic Bias ◽  
Accurate Representation ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Age Related

The current study investigated a systematic bias in spatial memory in which people, following a perspective shift from encoding to recall, indicated the location of an object further to the direction of the shit. In Experiment 1, we documented this bias by asking participants to encode the position of an object in a virtual room and then indicate it from memory following a perspective shift induced by camera translation and rotation. In Experiment 2, we decoupled the influence of camera translations and camera rotations and examined also whether adding more information in the scene would reduce the bias. We also investigated the presence of age-related differences in the precision of object location estimates and the tendency to display the bias related to perspective shift. Overall, our results showed that camera translations led to greater systematic bias than camera rotations. Furthermore, the use of additional spatial information improved the precision with which object locations were estimated and reduced the bias associated with camera translation. Finally, we found that although older adults were as precise as younger participants when estimating object locations, they benefited less from additional spatial information and their responses were more biased in the direction of camera translations. We propose that accurate representation of camera translations requires more demanding mental computations than camera rotations, leading to greater uncertainty about the position of an object in memory. This uncertainty causes people to rely on an egocentric anchor thereby giving rise to the systematic bias in the direction of camera translation.

scholarly journals Aging impairs primary task resumption and attentional control processes following interruptions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene Roesner ◽  
Bianca Zickerick ◽  
Melinda Sabo ◽  
Daniel Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Memory Content ◽  
Task Resumption

Attentional selection of working memory content is impaired after an interruption. This effect was shown to increase with age. Here we investigate how electrophysiological mechanisms underlying attentional selection within working memory differ during primary task resumption between younger and older adults. Participants performed a working memory task, while be-ing frequently interrupted with either a cognitively low- or high-demanding arithmetic task. Afterwards, a retrospective cue (retro-cue) indicated the working memory content required for later report. The detrimental effect of the interruption was evident in both age groups, but while younger adults were more strongly affected by a high- than by a low-demanding inter-ruption, the performance deficit appeared independently of the cognitive requirements of the interruption task in older adults. A similar pattern was found regarding frontal-posterior con-nectivity in the theta frequency range, suggesting that aging decreases the ability to selectively maintain relevant information within working memory. The power of mid-frontal theta oscilla-tions (4-7 Hz) featured a comparable effect of interruptions in both age groups. However, pos-terior alpha power (8-14 Hz) following the retro-cue was more diminished by a preceding in-terruption in older adults. These results suggest an age-related deficit in the attentional selec-tion and maintenance of primary task information following an interruption that appeared in-dependent from the cognitive requirements of the interrupting task.

scholarly journals Enhancing Spatial Attention and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1483-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camarin E. Rolle ◽  
Joaquin A. Anguera ◽  
Sasha N. Skinner ◽  
Bradley Voytek ◽  
Adam Gazzaley
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Attention Training ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Custom Made

Daily experiences demand both focused and broad allocation of attention for us to interact efficiently with our complex environments. Many types of attention have shown age-related decline, although there is also evidence that such deficits may be remediated with cognitive training. However, spatial attention abilities have shown inconsistent age-related differences, and the extent of potential enhancement of these abilities remains unknown. Here, we assessed spatial attention in both healthy younger and older adults and trained this ability in both age groups for 5 hr over the course of 2 weeks using a custom-made, computerized mobile training application. We compared training-related gains on a spatial attention assessment and spatial working memory task to age-matched controls who engaged in expectancy-matched, active placebo computerized training. Age-related declines in spatial attention abilities were observed regardless of task difficulty. Spatial attention training led to improved focused and distributed attention abilities as well as improved spatial working memory in both younger and older participants. No such improvements were observed in either of the age-matched control groups. Note that these findings were not a function of improvements in simple response time, as basic motoric function did not change after training. Furthermore, when using change in simple response time as a covariate, all findings remained significant. These results suggest that spatial attention training can lead to enhancements in spatial working memory regardless of age.

Spatial memory in Canadian and Indian young and older adults: the effects of age, culture and cultural orientation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khushi Patel
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Cultural Orientation ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Cross Cultural Research ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Performance Gains ◽  
The Relationship

Cross-cultural research suggests that individualistic Americans have a tendency to process focal objects; in contrast, collectivist Asians have a tendency to bind objects and context (Park & Huang, 2010). However, little is known whether the reported cultural differences are moderated by cultural orientation. In light of these results and the well-reported age-related decline in binding abilities, the current study examined cultural and age differences in cultural orientation, spatial memory and strategy use with young and older Canadian and Indian adults. There was little difference between Canadian and Indian participants’ cultural orientation. While cultural orientation did not moderate the relationship between culture and spatial memory, spatial memory and strategy use differed as a function of age. The use of context-specific strategies resulted in performance gains in older adults, however overall older adults had poor spatial memory, with Indian older adults scoring significantly lower than Canadian older adults on the courtyard task.

scholarly journals Negative Effects of Embodiment in a Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task in Children, Young Adults, and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianluca Amico ◽  
Sabine Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Negative Effects

Studies examining the effect of embodied cognition have shown that linking one’s body movements to a cognitive task can enhance performance. The current study investigated whether concurrent walking while encoding or recalling spatial information improves working memory performance, and whether 10-year-old children, young adults, or older adults (Mage = 72 years) are affected differently by embodiment. The goal of the Spatial Memory Task was to encode and recall sequences of increasing length by reproducing positions of target fields in the correct order. The nine targets were positioned in a random configuration on a large square carpet (2.5 m × 2.5 m). During encoding and recall, participants either did not move, or they walked into the target fields. In a within-subjects design, all possible combinations of encoding and recall conditions were tested in counterbalanced order. Contrary to our predictions, moving particularly impaired encoding, but also recall. These negative effects were present in all age groups, but older adults’ memory was hampered even more strongly by walking during encoding and recall. Our results indicate that embodiment may not help people to memorize spatial information, but can create a dual-task situation instead.

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 Automated Speech Recognition Systems and Older Adults: A Literature Review and Synthesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Werner ◽  
Gaojian Huang ◽  
Brandon J. Pitts
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Automated Speech Recognition ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Physical Changes

The number of older adults is growing significantly worldwide. At the same time, technological developments are rapidly evolving, and older populations are expected to interact more frequently with such sophisticated systems. Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems is an example of one technology that is increasingly present in daily life. However, age-related physical changes may alter speech production and limit the effectiveness of ASR systems for older individuals. The goal of this paper was to summarize the current knowledge on ASR systems and older adults. The PRISMA method was employed and 17 studies were compared on the basis of word error rate (WER). Overall, WER was found to be influenced by age, gender, and the number of speech samples used to train ASR systems. This work has implications for the development of future human-machine technologies that will be used by a wide range of age groups.

Changes in the Dynamic Stability of Walking in Active Healthy Older Adults Independent of Changes in Walking Speed

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Gu Kang ◽  
Jonathan B. Dingwell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Dynamic Stability ◽  
Walking Speed ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Leg Strength ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Risk Of Falls ◽  
Walking Speeds

Older adults commonly walk slower, which many believe helps improve their walking stability. However, they remain at increased risk of falls. We investigated how differences in age and walking speed independently affect dynamic stability during walking, and how age-related changes in leg strength and ROM affected this relationship. Eighteen active healthy older and 17 younger adults walked on a treadmill for 5 minutes each at each of 5 speeds (80–120% of preferred). Local divergence exponents and maximum Floquet multipliers (FM) were calculated to quantify each subject’s responses to small inherent perturbations during walking. These older adults exhibited the same preferred walking speeds as the younger subjects (p = 0.860). However, these older adults still exhibited greater local divergence exponents (p<0.0001) and higher maximum FM (p<0.007) than young adults at all walking speeds. These older adults remained more unstable (p<0.04) even after adjusting for declines in both strength and ROM. In both age groups, local divergence exponents decreased at slower speeds and increased at faster speeds (p<0.0001). Maximum FM showed similar changes with speed (p<0.02). The older adults in this study were healthy enough to walk at normal speeds. However, these adults were still more unstable than the young adults, independent of walking speed. This greater instability was not explained by loss of leg strength and ROM. Slower speeds led to decreased instability in both groups.

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