The effects of stereotype threat on the associative memory deficit of older adults

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew S. Brubaker
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Deficit ◽  
Item Memory ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Negative Effect

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] One of the suggestions made in the literature regarding older adults' episodic memory decline is that it is caused by their reduced ability to bind together components of an episode and retrieve the binding (termed an associative deficit). The purpose of the current research is to assess whether the age-related associative memory deficit is at least partially mediated by stereotype threat, which has been shown to negatively affect performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks, including memory performance of older adults. To date the effects of stereotype threat on older adults' memory performance have only been shown using tests of item memory, and between subject manipulations. The question assessed in the current research is whether older adults' associative memory will be affected by stereotype threat more than item memory, rendering it one potential factor underlying the associative deficit. To answer this question, three experiments were conducted, which used an item-associative recognition memory paradigm while manipulating stereotype threat both within and between subjects. The first two experiments attempted to establish the baseline effect by directly comparing item and associative memory in younger and older adults under induced stereotype threat, reduced stereotype threat, and no stereotype threat (i.e. control) conditions. While a baseline age-related associative deficit was not shown in the control condition, inducing stereotype threat did have a significant negative effect on older adults' associative memory performance without affecting item memory performance -- suggesting that stereotype threat does increase the age-related associative deficit. The third experiment further assessed the stage of processing -- encoding, retrieval, or both -- during which the effect of stereotype threat on older adults' memory occurs. Results showed that when stereotype threat was induced only at retrieval, memory performance was in line with performance with the reduced stereotype threat and control conditions, suggesting that this effect of stereotype threat occurs primarily during encoding of the information.

scholarly journals Age-related associative memory deficit: simulation and strategies to improve performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Iok Wong
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Encoding Strategies

According to the associative deficit hypothesis, older adults experience greater difficulty in remembering associations between pieces of information (associative memory) than young adults, despite their relatively intact memory for individual items (item memory). Recent research suggests that this deficit might be related to older adults’ reduced availability of attentional resources – the reservoir of mental energy needed for the operations of cognition functions. The purpose of this Dissertation was to examine the role of attentional resources in associative deficit, and to explore encoding manipulations that might alleviate the deficit in older adults. In Study 1, young adults’ attentional resources during encoding of word pairs were depleted using a divided attention task. These participants showed an associative deficit commonly observed in older adults, and were less likely to use effective encoding strategies and recollection-based processes to support their memory in comparison to young adults under full attention. The resemblance in memory performance between young adults under divided attention and older adults suggests that lack of attentional resources might be a contributing factor in older adults’ associative deficit. In Study 2, participants’ resource load during encoding was reduced by learning individual items and their associations sequentially in two phases. Older adults in this condition showed equivalent memory performance to young adults, and were more likely to use effective encoding strategies and recollection-based processes than older adults in Study 1 who studied items and associations simultaneously. Finally, Study 3 employed a value-directed learning paradigm, in which participants studied high- and low-value word pairs. Older adults showed similar memory performance for both high- and low-value word pairs as young adults, without any signs of associative deficit. Assigning value to associative information might prompt older adults to prioritize associative encoding over item encoding, which benefits their associative memory. Taken together, these results suggest that depletion of attentional resources during encoding could impair associative memory. Furthermore, older adults’ associative deficit could be effectively alleviated with sufficient environmental support during encoding, such as when resource competition between item and associative encoding is minimized (Study 2) or when being guided to prioritize encoding of associations over items (Study 3).

scholarly journals Age-related associative memory deficit: simulation and strategies to improve performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Iok Wong
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Encoding Strategies

According to the associative deficit hypothesis, older adults experience greater difficulty in remembering associations between pieces of information (associative memory) than young adults, despite their relatively intact memory for individual items (item memory). Recent research suggests that this deficit might be related to older adults’ reduced availability of attentional resources – the reservoir of mental energy needed for the operations of cognition functions. The purpose of this Dissertation was to examine the role of attentional resources in associative deficit, and to explore encoding manipulations that might alleviate the deficit in older adults. In Study 1, young adults’ attentional resources during encoding of word pairs were depleted using a divided attention task. These participants showed an associative deficit commonly observed in older adults, and were less likely to use effective encoding strategies and recollection-based processes to support their memory in comparison to young adults under full attention. The resemblance in memory performance between young adults under divided attention and older adults suggests that lack of attentional resources might be a contributing factor in older adults’ associative deficit. In Study 2, participants’ resource load during encoding was reduced by learning individual items and their associations sequentially in two phases. Older adults in this condition showed equivalent memory performance to young adults, and were more likely to use effective encoding strategies and recollection-based processes than older adults in Study 1 who studied items and associations simultaneously. Finally, Study 3 employed a value-directed learning paradigm, in which participants studied high- and low-value word pairs. Older adults showed similar memory performance for both high- and low-value word pairs as young adults, without any signs of associative deficit. Assigning value to associative information might prompt older adults to prioritize associative encoding over item encoding, which benefits their associative memory. Taken together, these results suggest that depletion of attentional resources during encoding could impair associative memory. Furthermore, older adults’ associative deficit could be effectively alleviated with sufficient environmental support during encoding, such as when resource competition between item and associative encoding is minimized (Study 2) or when being guided to prioritize encoding of associations over items (Study 3).

scholarly journals I know your face but can’t remember your name: Age-related differences in the FNAME-12NL

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Enriquez-Geppert ◽  
J F Flores-Vázquez ◽  
M Lietz ◽  
M Garcia-Pimenta ◽  
P Andrés
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Effects Of Aging

Abstract Objective The Face-Name Associative Memory test (FNAME) has recently received attention as a test for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. So far, however, there has been no systematic investigation of the effects of aging. Here, we aimed to assess the extent to which the FNAME performance is modulated by normal ageing. Method In a first step, we adapted the FNAME material to the Dutch population. In a second step, younger (n = 29) and older adults (n = 29) were compared on recall and recognition performance. Results Significant age effects on name recall were observed after the first exposure of new face-name pairs: younger adults remembered eight, whereas older adults remembered a mean of four out of twelve names. Although both age groups increased the number of recalled names with repeated face-name exposure, older adults did not catch up with the performance of the younger adults, and the age-effects remained stable. Despite of that, both age groups maintained their performance after a 30-min delay. Considering recognition, no age differences were demonstrated, and both age groups succeeded in the recognition of previously shown faces and names when presented along with distractors. Conclusions This study presents for the first time the results of different age groups regarding cross-modal associative memory performance on the FNAME. The recall age effects support the hypothesis of age-related differences in associative memory. To use the FNAME as an early cognitive biomarker, further subscales are suggested to increase sensitivity and specificity in the clinical context.

Implicit Relational Memory in Young and Older Adults

2007 ◽  
Vol 215 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilana T.Z. Dew ◽  
Ute J. Bayen ◽  
Kelly S. Giovanello
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Implicit Memory ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Relational Memory ◽  
Memory Research ◽  
New Associations ◽  
Associative Deficit ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Abstract. Older adults do not perform as well as young adults in explicit episodic memory tasks that require the formation and retrieval of new associations. Relatively few studies have investigated the effects of older adults' associative deficit on implicit-memory performance. After introducing the reader to the area of implicit-memory research at large, the authors review studies that have investigated young and older adults' performance in implicit associative memory tasks. Core theoretical issues and methodological challenges are discussed.

scholarly journals Effects of Age-Related Stereotype Threat on Metacognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Y. Fourquet ◽  
Tara K. Patterson ◽  
Changrui Li ◽  
Alan D. Castel ◽  
Barbara J. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Present Experiment ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Decline ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Metacognitive Judgments ◽  
Modest Effect

Previous work has shown that memory performance in older adults is affected by activation of a stereotype of age-related memory decline. In the present experiment, we examined whether stereotype threat would affect metamemory in older adults; that is, whether under stereotype threat they make poorer judgments about what they could remember. We tested older adults (MAge = 66.18 years) on a task in which participants viewed words paired with point values and “bet” on whether they could later recall each word. If they bet on and recalled a word, they gained those points, but if they bet on and failed to recall a word, they lost those points. Thus, this task required participants to monitor how much they could remember and prioritize high value items. Participants performed this task over six lists of items either under stereotype threat about age-related memory decline or not under stereotype threat. Participants from both groups performed similarly on initial lists, but on later lists, participants under stereotype threat showed impaired performance as indicated by a lower average point score and a lower average gamma coefficient. The results suggest that a modest effect of stereotype threat on recall combined with a modest effect on metacognitive judgments to result in a performance deficit. This pattern of results may reflect an effect of stereotype threat on executive control reducing the ability to strategically use memory.

scholarly journals Stereotype Threat Alters the Subjective Experience of Memory

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 395-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Mazerolle ◽  
Isabelle Régner ◽  
François Rigalleau ◽  
Pascal Huguet
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Contextual Detail

Abstract. There is now evidence that negative age-related stereotypes about memory reduce older adults’ memory performance, and inflate age differences in this domain. Here, we examine whether stereotype threat may also influence the basic feeling that one is more or less able to remember. Using the Remember/Know paradigm, we demonstrated that stereotype threat conducted older adults to a greater feeling of familiarity with events, while failing to retrieve any contextual detail. This finding indicates that stereotype threat alters older adults’ subjective experience of memory, and strengthens our understanding of the mechanisms underlying stereotype threat effects.

The effects of stereotype threat on the associative memory deficit of older adults.

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Brubaker ◽  
Moshe Naveh-Benjamin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Memory Deficit

scholarly journals Age-related decline in item but not spatiotemporal associative memory for a real-world event

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Diamond ◽  
Kristoffer Romero ◽  
Nivethika Jeyakumar ◽  
Brian Levine
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Associative Memory ◽  
Real World ◽  
Item Memory ◽  
Discrimination Accuracy ◽  
Core Component ◽  
Museum Exhibit ◽  
Item Order ◽  
Age Related

Normal aging is typically associated with reduced ability to reconstruct the spatiotemporal context of past events, a core component of episodic memory. However, little is known about our ability to remember the order of events comprising extended real-world experiences and how this ability changes with age. We leveraged the richness and structure of a museum exhibit to address this question. Three months after visiting the exhibit, 141 adults aged 18-84 completed a test of spatiotemporal order memory and old/new recognition using pictures from the exhibit and similar lures, from which measures of associative and item memory were derived. Order discrimination accuracy was modulated by inter-item order and distance in younger and older adults, extending findings from recognition of laboratory stimuli at short delays to remote real-world experiences. In contrast to established findings from laboratory-based assessments, we observed a significant effect of aging on item memory driven byincreased lure susceptibility, but no age-related reduction in spatiotemporal associative memory. These findings present novel insights into different components of memory for real-world experiences at naturalistic timescales and across the lifespan.

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