Do pictures help to memorize? The influence of item presentation and executive functions on everyday memory in older adults (original) (raw)
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The effects of presentation and processing on explicit memory in older adults
2012
Forty eight older adults watched words presented on a computer monitor and took a test of word recall. Results reveal a main effect for presentation, processing and an interaction of presentation and processing. These findings suggest the possible use of compensatory mechanisms for preserving memory by older adults.
Adult age differences in recall of performed and nonperformed items
Psychology and Aging, 1996
Memory for performed cognitive activities (e.g., psychometric tests of intelligence), for performed brief actions (e.g., hand wave), and for nonperformed items (e.g., written words) was assessed for 102 older and 101 younger adults. Although enactment improved recall, the beneficial effects of enactment were the same for both age groups. In fact, more than 80% of the age-related variance in memory for performed items was shared with memory for nonperformed items. Working memory and perceptual speed were important to the age differences in memory for both types of items. Performed and nonperformed items showed different serial position effects. However, the correlation between memory for the 2 types of items was high, especially for older adults, suggesting that the 2 types of memory share many common processes. A growing literature examining memory for performed cognitive activities (e.g., psychometric tests of intelligence) and brief actions (e.g., break a stick) suggests that there may be fundamental differences between memory for performed items and memory for verbally presented (i.e., either written or spoken) items. Furthermore, it has been suggested that there are smaller effects of age on memory for performed than nonperformed items (see Kausler & Lichty, 1988). One purpose of the present study was to directly examine the relations between memory for performed and nonperformed items, focusing on the effect of type of material to be remembered on age differences in recall and on possible mechanisms for age differences. Age Differences in Memory for Performed Items Many studies have found that memory for both the names of and descriptions of performed cognitive activities (e.g., cognitive tests) is better for younger than for older adults (e.g., Earles & Coon, 1994; Kausler & Hakami, 1983). Many studies have also found significant age differences in recall of briefer, more discrete actions (e.g., stamp foot or break stick) that involve less of a cognitive component and more of a motor component (e.g.
Memory changes in healthy young and older adults
The Oxford handbook of …, 2000
The present chapter provides a review of the literature addressing changes in memory performance in older adults (often retired individuals with an age between 60 and 80 years), compared to younger adults (often college students around age 20). While it is well-established that memory performance declines in older adults (e.g., Kausler, 1994;, it is now clear that not all aspects of memory are impaired (e.
Journal of Neuropsychology, 2014
To investigate everyday memory, more and more studies rely on virtual-reality applications to bridge the gap between in situ approaches and laboratory settings. In this vein, the present study was designed to assess everyday-like memory from the virtual reality-based Human Object Memory for Everyday Scenes (HOMES) test (Sauzéon et al., 2012, Exp. Psychol., 59, 99) in ageing and in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Two aims motivated this study: the first was to assess multiple processes of episodic memory (EM) functioning embedded within contexts closely related to real life in ageing and AD using the multi-trial free-recall paradigm, and the second aim was to evaluate the mediating effects of executive functioning (EF), EM, and subjective memory complaints (SMCs) on age differences in the HOMES measures and in AD. To this end, the HOMES test and neurocognitive tests of EF and EM were administered to 23 younger adults, 23 older adults, and 16 patients with AD. The results were: firstly, compared to young adults, elderly adults presented only free-recall decline that almost disappeared in recognition condition whereas AD patients exhibited a poor clustering, learning, and recognition performance, and also a high amount of false recognition; secondly, age differences as well as AD related deficits on the HOMES test were mediated by both memory and EF measure while those observed on false memory indices were only mediated by EM measure; thirdly, the HOMES indices are related to SMCs even when episodic or EF measures are controlled. Overall, the results supported the fact that the VR-based memory test is an appropriate device to capture age-related differences as well as the AD effect with respect to both in situ and laboratory settings.
Adult age differences in the effects of environmental context on memory performance
Experimental Aging Research, 1996
In two experiments, we examined the hypotheses that the memory performance of older adults is more dependent than that of younger adults on environmental context, and that the integration of to-be-remembered items with contextual cues benefits older more than younger adults. When younger and older adults were shown simple line drawings that were not explicitly associated with the external environment, there was no effect on recall of a change in environmental context for either age group. However, when subjects heard sentences that connected the simple drawings with environmental cues, an environmental context effect was observed. Both age groups recalled more in the same than in a different environment, and the magnitude of the facilitation effect of the familiar context was equal for younger and older adults. However, the integration of the to-be-remembered items with the context facilitated recall regardless of the context present at retrieval, and this effect was larger for younger adults, suggesting that the younger adults were better able to use the provided integrations than were the older adults.
Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 2009
The influence of aging on memory has been extensively studied, but the importance of short-term memory and recall sequence has not. The objective of the current study was to examine the recall order of words presented on lists and to determine if age affects recall sequence. Physically and psychologically healthy male subjects were divided into two groups according to age, i.e., 23 young subjects (20 to 30 years) and 50 elderly subjects (60 to 70 years) submitted to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised and the free word recall test. The order of word presentation significantly affected the 3rd and 4th words recalled (P < 0.01; F = 14.6). In addition, there was interaction between the presentation order and the type of list presented (P < 0.05; F = 9.7). Also, both groups recalled the last words presented from each list (words 13-15) significantly more times 3rd and 4th than words presented in all remaining positions (P < 0.01). The order of word presentation also significantly affected the 5th and 6th words recalled (P = 0.05; F = 7.5) and there was a significant interaction between the order of presentation and the type of list presented (P < 0.01; F = 20.8). The more developed the cognitive functions, resulting mainly from formal education, the greater the cognitive reserve, helping to minimize the effects of aging on the long-term memory (episodic declarative).
Handbook of memory disorders, 2002
Memory difficulty is one of the most common complaints of older adults (eg Hertzog & Dixon, 1994), so the study of age-related changes in memory function is motivated by practical as well as theoretical considerations. This chapter reviews the major empirical findings in memory and aging research, with particular emphasis on recent work. In order to provide a contemporary context for understanding and evaluating the many results, we first summarize four major theoretical approaches to understanding memory and aging. At the end of the ...