scholarly journals Targeted Memory Reactivation during Mind-Wandering in Younger and Older Adults

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Nicosia
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recall Performance ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Paired Associates ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
Thought Probes

Mind-wandering (MW) is a universal cognitive process that is estimated to comprise ~30% of our everyday thoughts. Despite its prevalence, the functional utility of MW remains a scientific blind spot. The present study sought to investigate whether MW serves a functional role in cognition. Specifically, we investigated whether MW contributes to memory consolidation processes, and if age differences in the ability to reactivate episodic memories during MW may contribute to age-related declines in episodic memory. Younger and older adults encoded paired associates, received targeted reactivation cues during an interval filled with a task which promotes MW, and were tested on their memory for the cued and uncued stimuli from the initial encoding task. Thought probes were presented during the retention (MW) interval to assess participants’ thought contents. Across three experiments, we compared the effect of different cue modalities (i.e., auditory, visual) on cued recall performance, and examined both correct retrieval response times as well as accuracy. Across experiments, there was evidence that stimuli that were cued during the MW task were correctly retrieved more quickly than uncued stimuli and that this effect was more robust for younger adults than older adults. Additionally, the more MW a participant reported during the retention interval, the stronger the cueing effect they produced during retrieval. The results from these experiments are interpreted within a retrieval facilitation framework wherein cues serve to reactivate the earlier traces during MW, and this reactivation benefits retrieval speed for cued items as compared to uncued items.

Inefficient Encoding as an Explanation for Age-Related Deficits in Recollection-Based Processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Friedman ◽  
Ray Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Face ◽  
Episodic Memories

A cardinal feature of aging is a decline in episodic memory (EM). Nevertheless, there is evidence that some older adults may be able to “compensate” for failures in recollection-based processing by recruiting brain regions and cognitive processes not normally recruited by the young. We review the evidence suggesting that age-related declines in EM performance and recollection-related brain activity (left-parietal EM effect; LPEM) are due to altered processing at encoding. We describe results from our laboratory on differences in encoding- and retrieval-related activity between young and older adults. We then show that, relative to the young, in older adults brain activity at encoding is reduced over a brain region believed to be crucial for successful semantic elaboration in a 400–1,400-ms interval (left inferior prefrontal cortex, LIPFC; Johnson, Nessler, & Friedman, 2013 ; Nessler, Friedman, Johnson, & Bersick, 2007 ; Nessler, Johnson, Bersick, & Friedman, 2006 ). This reduced brain activity is associated with diminished subsequent recognition-memory performance and the LPEM at retrieval. We provide evidence for this premise by demonstrating that disrupting encoding-related processes during this 400–1,400-ms interval in young adults affords causal support for the hypothesis that the reduction over LIPFC during encoding produces the hallmarks of an age-related EM deficit: normal semantic retrieval at encoding, reduced subsequent episodic recognition accuracy, free recall, and the LPEM. Finally, we show that the reduced LPEM in young adults is associated with “additional” brain activity over similar brain areas as those activated when older adults show deficient retrieval. Hence, rather than supporting the compensation hypothesis, these data are more consistent with the scaffolding hypothesis, in which the recruitment of additional cognitive processes is an adaptive response across the life span in the face of momentary increases in task demand due to poorly-encoded episodic memories.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Hearing Loss and Cognitive Impairment in a Chinese Elderly Population: The Baseline Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinxing Fu ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
Shuo Wang ◽  
Robert H. Eikelboom ◽  
Dona M. P. Jayakody
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale ◽  
Paired Associates ◽  
Multiple Stepwise Regression Analysis ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Related Hearing Loss

Objectives: The objective of the study was to investigate the association between untreated age-related hearing loss and cognitive impairment in Mandarin-speaking older adults living in China.Methods: Older adults (293; 111 males, M = 70.33 ± 4.90 years; 182 females, M = 69.02 ± 4.08 years) were recruited. All participants completed a pure tone audiometric hearing assessment, Hearing Impairment-Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test (HI-MoCA), and a computerized neuropsychology test battery (CANTAB). The Mandarin version of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale was used to measure the loneliness, and the Mandarin version of the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to measure the current severity of a range of symptoms common to depression, stress, and anxiety of the participants.Results: A multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that the average of four mid-frequency thresholds in the better ear was related to CANTAB Paired Associates Learning (β = 0.20, p = 0.002), and the global cognitive function score (HI-MoCA) (β = −0.25, p < 0.001). The average of three high frequencies in the better ear was significantly associated with CANTAB Delayed Matching to Sample (β = −0.16, p = 0.008), and Spatial Working Memory (β = 0.17, p = 0.003).Conclusion: The results revealed a significant relationship between age-related hearing loss and cognitive impairment in Mandarin-speaking older adults. These research outcomes have clinical implications specifically for hearing health care professionals in China and other populations that speak a tonal language, especially when providing hearing rehabilitation.

Perceptual Organization and Grouping Factors: Age Related Effects

1994 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-174
Author(s):  
Darryl G. Humphrey ◽  
Arthur F. Kramer ◽  
Sheryl S. Gore
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Perceptual Organization ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Recall Performance ◽  
Partial Report ◽  
Visual Environment ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Visual Short Term Memory ◽  
Information Displays ◽  
Age Related

Older adults have evidenced a poorer ability to use grouping factors in such tasks as Embedded Figures, Incomplete Figures, and partial report. Difficulties in disambiguating the findings of these studies has left unanswered the cause of this age-related difference. By taking into account age-related differences in visual short-term memory, the results of the current study suggest that older adults maintain the ability to capitalize on the perceptual organization of the visual environment as a means of facilitating recall performance. These results have implications for the design of information displays, product labels, codes, and instructions.

Age effects on category learning and their relationship to deficits in memory specificity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Bowman ◽  
Stefania Rene Ashby ◽  
Dagmar Zeithamova
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Perceived Similarity ◽  
Memory Specificity ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Direct Learning ◽  
Age Deficits

Age deficits in memory for individual episodes are well established. Less is known about how age affects another key memory function: the ability to form new conceptual knowledge. Here we studied age differences in concept formation in a category-learning paradigm with face-blend stimuli, using several metrics: direct learning of category members presented during training, generalization of category labels to new examples, and shifts in perceived similarity between category members that often follow category learning. Age deficits in categorization were compared to metrics of memory specificity (recognition, cued-recall) for the same set of stimuli. We found that older adults were impaired in direct learning of training examples, but there was no generalization deficit above-and-beyond the deficit in direct learning. We also found that category learning affected the perceived similarity between members of the same versus opposing categories, and age did not significantly moderate this effect. When comparing categorization to memory specificity, we found that categorization deficits were smaller than deficits in recall and comparable to deficits in recognition, showing that categorization deficits are smaller than some of the largest known age-related memory deficits. Lastly, we compared traditional category learning to categorization after a learning task in which a category label (shared last name) was presented alongside stimulus-specific information (unique first names that individuated category members). We found that simultaneously learning stimulus-specific and category information resulted in decreased category learning in both age groups, and that this decrement was not disproportionate in older adults.

scholarly journals Stimulus Specific to Age-Related Audio-Visual Integration in Discrimination Tasks

i-Perception ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 204166952097841
Author(s):  
Yanna Ren ◽  
Zhihan Xu ◽  
Sa Lu ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Weiping Yang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Race Model ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Visual Integration ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Mean

Age-related audio-visual integration (AVI) has been investigated extensively; however, AVI ability is either enhanced or reduced with ageing, and this matter is still controversial because of the lack of systematic investigations. To remove possible variates, 26 older adults and 26 younger adults were recruited to conduct meaningless and semantic audio-visual discrimination tasks to assess the ageing effect of AVI systematically. The results for the mean response times showed a significantly faster response to the audio-visual (AV) target than that to the auditory (A) or visual (V) target and a significantly faster response to all targets by the younger adults than that by the older adults (A, V, and AV) in all conditions. In addition, a further comparison of the differences between the probability of audio-visual cumulative distributive functions (CDFs) and race model CDFs showed delayed AVI effects and a longer time window for AVI in older adults than that in younger adults in all conditions. The AVI effect was lower in older adults than that in younger adults during simple meaningless image discrimination (63.0 ms vs. 108.8 ms), but the findings were inverse during semantic image discrimination (310.3 ms vs. 127.2 ms). In addition, there was no significant difference between older and younger adults during semantic character discrimination (98.1 ms vs. 117.2 ms). These results suggested that AVI ability was impaired in older adults, but a compensatory mechanism was established for processing sematic audio-visual stimuli.

scholarly journals Visual Perceptual Load Attenuates Age-Related Audiovisual Integration in an Audiovisual Discrimination Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanna Ren ◽  
Hannan Li ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Weiping Yang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Perceptual Load ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Race Model ◽  
Audiovisual Integration ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Load Conditions

Previous studies confirmed that the cognitive resources are limited for each person, and perceptual load affects the detection of stimulus greatly; however, how the visual perceptual load influences audiovisual integration (AVI) is still unclear. Here, 20 older and 20 younger adults were recruited to perform an auditory/visual discrimination task under various visual perceptual-load conditions. The analysis for the response times revealed a significantly faster response to the audiovisual stimulus than to the visual stimulus or auditory stimulus (all p < 0.001), and a significantly slower response by the older adults than by the younger adults to all targets (all p ≤ 0.024). The race-model analysis revealed a higher AV facilitation effect for older (12.54%) than for younger (7.08%) adults under low visual perceptual-load conditions; however, no obvious difference was found between younger (2.92%) and older (3.06%) adults under medium visual perceptual-load conditions. Only the AV depression effect was found for both younger and older adults under high visual perceptual-load conditions. Additionally, the peak latencies of AVI were significantly delayed in older adults under all visual perceptual-load conditions. These results suggested that visual perceptual load decreased AVI (i.e., depression effects), and the AVI effect was increased but delayed for older adults.

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.

Two Hemispheres for Better Memory in Old Age: Role of Executive Functioning

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 3767-3777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Angel ◽  
Séverine Fay ◽  
Badiâa Bouazzaoui ◽  
Michel Isingrini
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Young Group ◽  
Cued Recall ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Individual

This experiment explored the functional significance of age-related hemispheric asymmetry reduction associated with episodic memory and the cognitive mechanisms that mediate this brain pattern. ERPs were recorded while young and older adults performed a word-stem cued-recall task. Results confirmed that the parietal old/new effect was of larger latency and reduced magnitude and less lateralized in the older group than the young group. Correlational and regression analyses indicated that the degree of laterality of brain activity determines the accuracy of memory performance and mediates age-related differences in memory performance among older participants. They also confirmed a cascade model in which the individual level of executive functioning of older adults mediates age-related differences in the degree of lateralization of brain activity, which in turn mediates age-related differences in memory performance.

scholarly journals Mind-Wandering Across the Age Gap: Age-Related Differences in Mind-Wandering Are Partially Attributable to Age-Related Differences in Motivation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Seli ◽  
Kevin O’Neill ◽  
Jonathan S A Carriere ◽  
Daniel Smilek ◽  
Roger E Beaty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Common Finding ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Gap ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Thought Probes ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Motivational Account

Abstract Objectives A common finding in the mind-wandering literature is that older adults (OAs) tend to mind-wander less frequently than young adults (YAs). Here, we sought to determine whether this age-related difference in mind-wandering is attributable to age-related differences in motivation. Method YAs and OAs completed an attention task during which they responded to thought probes that assessed rates of mind-wandering, and they provided self-reports of task-based motivation before and after completion of the attention task. Results Age-related differences in mind-wandering are partially explained by differences in motivation, and motivating YAs via incentive diminishes mind-wandering differences across these groups. Discussion We consider these results in the context of theories on age-related differences in mind wandering, with a specific focus on their relevance to the recently proposed motivational account of such age-related differences.

Aging and Input Devices: Voice Recognition Performance is Slower Yet More Acceptable than a Lightpen

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Jastrzembski ◽  
Neil Charness ◽  
Patricia Holley ◽  
Jeffrey Feddon
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Input Devices ◽  
Speech Recognition Software ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Light Pen

Microcomputers are ubiquitous to modern society, yet older adults consistently perform more poorly than younger counterparts using standard input devices (e.g. a mouse). Prior research has revealed that direct positioning devices (e.g. light pen), minimize age differences and enable quick transfer to the non-preferred hand. This study investigates whether speech recognition may also reduce age-related declines and enhance performance of older adults in target selection tasks. Twenty-four participants ages 20–26 (M = 21.7), twenty-four participants ages 44-55 (M = 48.9), and twenty-four participants ages 65–78 (M = 70.4) were asked to select a specified target using either a light pen or speech recognition software (IBM's ViaVoice). Results revealed no age effects for type of device, but response times for target acquisition were approximately 2178 ms longer for speech recognition than the direct positioning device, and preference ratings were higher using speech as input versus the lightpen. Implications are discussed.

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