How arousal affects younger and older adults' memory binding - PubMed (original) (raw)

How arousal affects younger and older adults' memory binding

Kaoru Nashiro et al. Exp Aging Res. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

A number of recent studies have shown that associative memory for within-item features is enhanced for emotionally arousing items, whereas arousal-enhanced binding is not seen for associations between distinct items (for a review, see Mather, 2007, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 33-52). The costs and benefits of arousal in memory binding have been examined for younger adults but not for older adults. The present experiment examined whether arousal would enhance younger and older adults' within-item and between-item memory binding. The results revealed that arousal improved younger adults' within-item memory binding but not that of older adults. Arousal worsened both groups' between-item memory binding.

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Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

(A) Younger adults had better item memory for negative than positive photographs but older adults did not show this advantage for negative pictures. Arousing pictures (B) enhanced younger adults' location memory, but (C) impaired both groups' pair memory. (D) However, strategy use (association condition) enhanced memory for shape-photograph pairs that had neutral photographs. Error bars display the standard error.

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