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Episodic memory: Memorizing performance
... In addition, when indirect tests are used, there is some evidence that the establishment of associative, but not of item memory requires that the subject attend to the stimulus (Eich, 1984;Nissen & Bullemer, 1987) and encode some meaningful relation between the words to be associated (Graf & Schacter, 1985;Schacter & Graf, 1986a). Aging is characterized by deficits in attention (see the review by Plude & Hoyer, 1985), and in the degree of semantic elaboration in which people engage spontaneously (see reviews by Craik & Rabinowitz, 1984;Kausler, 1985;Poon, 1985). These latter deficits might lead to age differences on indirect tests of associative memory, even though there is age constancy on indirect tests of item memory. ...
Three experiments examined adult age differences in memory for new associations between unrelated words. On the indirect (word-stem completion) test, age differences appeared under the less-than-optimal study conditions of Experiments 1 and 3 but not under the self-paced study conditions of Experiment 2. In contrast, all experiments revealed significant age-related deficits on the direct tests, even those (word-stem cued recall) in which the cue was identical to those provided on the indirect test. The findings show that although age-related deficits in memory for new associations are particularly pronounced on tests requiring conscious recollection, age differences are not limited to such tests. Age deficits on both direct and indirect tests are related to the precision of elaborations produced during study. Similarities and differences between normal aging and amnesia are discussed, as are functional dissociations between direct and indirect measures.
... Thus, POP models seem to be the ideal system for modeling automatic processing. Curiously, in the cognitive aging literature, it is automatic processing that seems to be the least sensitive to any decrements occurring with age (e.g., for incidental memory, see Kausler, 1985). So-called directed processing, or effortful processing (Hasher & Zacks, 1979), seems to be the most age sensitive. ...
Cognitive models of aging ought, minimally, to simulate age effects for a broad range of tasks, and their underlying assumptions ought to be constrained by existing data on cognitive mechanisms. Salthouse's model (and other parallel distributed-processing network models) meets the first criterion better than it meets the second. Another weakness is in its inability to account for goal-directed behavior. Thus, models like that of Salthouse seem best suited to the description of automatic information processes such as recognition. I conclude that such models are best evaluated in competition with standard symbolic processing models. I introduce simulation of chess position recall by older and younger chess players and compare it with Salthouse's model.
... A ontogénese dos lobos frontais revela que estes são desenvolvidos mais tardiamente; são também mais sensíveis e vulneráveis à questão do envelhecimento (Parente & Wagner, 2006). Kausler, 1985). A memória de reconhecimento, onde se reflecte um recordar e conhecimento, também reflecte familiaridade que é puramente perceptual. ...
O objectivo desta investigação foi estudar a memória episódica visual em ex-combatentes da Guerra Colonial Portuguesa com ou sem diagnóstico de Perturbação de Stress Pós-Traumático (PSPT). A razão subjacente ao estudo da memória episódica visual em veteranos de guerra baseou-se na suposição de que os episódios vividos pelos soldados na guerra são recordados ao longo da vida sob a forma de imagens visuais na sua maior parte. Será que a memória destes episódios de guerra, que se apresentam nas recordações sob a forma de imagens visuais, interfere ou não negativamente no desempenho de memória quando avaliado em provas objectivas? Há vários estudos que indicam que o stress afecta negativamente o desempenho cognitivo, mas não se sabe exactamente em que medida o stress de guerra afecta especificamente a memória episódica visual. Para o determinar, foi seleccionada uma prova de aprendizagem e memória visual, composta por 6 figuras abstractas e de natureza geométrica que são aprendidas e evocadas ao longo de 3 ensaios e posteriormente evocadas e reconhecidas ao fim de 25 minutos (BVMT-R, 1997). Pretendeu-se que o material usado nestas provas fosse de carácter emocional neutro. Além da aprendizagem e memória avaliada pelo BVMT-R, a investigação pretendeu ainda verificar se a idade dos soldados, o tempo de guerra, o desempenho cognitivo global expresso por provas como o SLUMS e o teste de substituição de símbolos por dígitos (TSSD) teve um efeito moderador nos resultados que vierem a ser obtidos. Foi ainda utilizado um questionário sócio-demográfico com as questões julgadas pertinentes para o estudo realizado. A amostra foi constituída por 54 veteranos de guerra com idades compreendidas entre os 54 e os 67 anos, tendo-se formado dois Grupos de 27 veteranos cada, sendo a média do Grupo mais novo de 56 anos e a do Grupo mais velho de 62 anos. Os grupos eram similares em termos de escolaridade, tempo de guerra, medicação e avaliação do PSPT e cada ex-combatente foi avaliado individualmente. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que o desempenho nas provas cognitivas do BVMT-R, TSSD e SLUMS era inferior no Grupo de veteranos Memória Episódica e Avaliação Cognitiva 5 mais velhos em relação ao Grupo dos mais novos, mas a diferença de médias raramente atingiu o grau de significância estatística. Os resultados são discutidos no âmbito da literatura revista.
... Episodic memory relies on the ability to encode information within working memory with sufficient fidelity that it can be transferred to, and retrieved from, long-term memory (Anderson et al., 1998). Episodic memory has been shown to decline in later life (Kausler, 1985), a pattern often attributed to failures to associate or bind together elements of encoding context (i.e. "attributes of the episode") (Chalfonte and Johnson, 1996;Naveh-Benjamin, 2000). ...
We examined the extent to which prior knowledge about nutrition moderates age differences in remembering newly learned nutrition information. Younger and older adults with varying levels of knowledge read an article on fats and cholesterol and then completed a memory task. Participants responded to statements that were-or were not-presented in the text, which enabled us to examine memory accuracy overall as well as hits and memory errors. Results showed age differences were present in the low-knowledge group but not in the high-knowledge group. Findings illustrate the importance of knowledge for older adults' memory for health information.
... for handwriting when the large groups are considered . This age effect on episodic memory tasks is largely documented (Kausler, 1985). The mainpurpose of Experiment 2 was to test whether the effects observed in Experiment I could be replicated by enrolling novices of an age similarto that of thosestudiedby D&C. ...
The dramatic effect of inversion on the episodic recognition of unfamiliar faces has been considered as proof of specific mechanisms for the processing of faces. This view was challenged by R. Diamond and S. Carey (see record
1986-21075-001), who observed similar effects when photographs of dogs were shown to dog experts. In Exp 1, the results of Diamond and Carey were replicated with natural handwriting as stimuli, with 32 novices matched to 16 experts, and with different structural representations of the targets at encoding and during the recognition test. In Exp 2, 32 younger novices participated, but this did not affect the pattern of results. Exp 3 with 16 novices showed that the results were not due to floor effects. All Ss were 19–72 yrs old. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Esta capacidade é a performance ou desempenho individual em acção diariamente, onde se produz comentários, recordações, reconhecimento e evocações. É de salientar que o reconhecimento requer muito menos esforço cognitivo e é menos susceptível do que a capacidade de recordar (Kausler, 1985). A memória de reconhecimento, onde se reflecte um recordar e conhecimento, também reflecte familiaridade que é puramente perceptual. ...
O objectivo desta investigação foi estudar a memória episódica visual em ex-combatentes da Guerra Colonial Portuguesa com ou sem diagnóstico de Perturbação de Stress Pós-Traumático (PSPT). A razão subjacente ao estudo da memória episódica visual em veteranos de guerra baseou-se na suposição de que os episódios vividos pelos soldados na guerra são recordados ao longo da vida sob a forma de imagens visuais na sua maior parte. Será que a memória destes episódios de guerra, que se apresentam nas recordações sob a forma de imagens visuais, interfere ou não negativamente no desempenho de memória quando avaliado em provas objectivas? Há vários estudos que indicam que o stress afecta negativamente o desempenho cognitivo, mas não se sabe exactamente em que medida o stress de guerra afecta especificamente a memória episódica visual. Para o determinar, foi seleccionada uma prova de aprendizagem e memória visual, composta por 6 figuras abstractas e de natureza geométrica que são aprendidas e evocadas ao longo de 3 ensaios e posteriormente evocadas e reconhecidas ao fim de 25 minutos (BVMT-R, 1997). Pretendeu-se que o material usado nestas provas fosse de carácter emocional neutro. Além da aprendizagem e memória avaliada pelo BVMT-R, a investigação pretendeu ainda verificar se a idade dos soldados, o tempo de guerra, o desempenho cognitivo global expresso por provas como o SLUMS e o teste de substituição de símbolos por dígitos (TSSD) teve um efeito moderador nos resultados que vierem a ser obtidos. Foi ainda utilizado um questionário sócio-demográfico com as questões julgadas pertinentes para o estudo realizado. A amostra foi constituída por 54 veteranos de guerra com idades compreendidas entre os 54 e os 67 anos, tendo-se formado dois Grupos de 27 veteranos cada, sendo a média do Grupo mais novo de 56 anos e a do Grupo mais velho de 62 anos. Os grupos eram similares em termos de escolaridade, tempo de guerra, medicação e avaliação do PSPT e cada ex-combatente foi avaliado individualmente. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que o desempenho nas provas cognitivas do BVMT-R, TSSD e SLUMS era inferior no Grupo de veteranos Memória Episódica e Avaliação Cognitiva 5 mais velhos em relação ao Grupo dos mais novos, mas a diferença de médias raramente atingiu o grau de significância estatística. Os resultados são discutidos no âmbito da literatura revista.
... In addition, when indirect tests are used, there is some evidence that the establishment of associative, but not of item memory requires that the subject attend to the stimulus (Eich, 1984;Nissen & Bullemer, 1987) and encode some meaningful relation between the words to be associated (Graf &Schacter, 1985;Schacter & Graf, 1986a). Aging is characterized by deficits in attention (see the review by Plude & Hoyer, 1985), and in the degree of semantic elaboration in which people engage spontaneously (see reviews by Craik & Rabinowitz, 1984;Kausler, 1985;Pooh, 1985). These latter deficits might lead to age differences on indirect tests of associative memory, even though there is age constancy on indirect tests of item memory. ...
Three experiments examined adult age differences in memory for new associations between unrelated words. On the indirect (word-stem completion) test, age differences appeared under the less-than-optimal study conditions of Experiments 1 and 3 but not under the self-paced study conditions of Experiment 2. In contrast, all experiments revealed significant age-related deficits on the direct tests, even those (word-stem cued recall) in which the cue was identical to those provided on the indirect test. The findings show that although age-related deficits in memory for new associations are particularly pronounced on tests requiring conscious recollection, age differences are not limited to such tests. Age deficits on both direct and indirect tests are related to the precision of elaborations produced during study. Similarities and differences between normal aging and amnesia are discussed, as are functional dissociations between direct and indirect measures.
... Route knowledge is characterized by a sequence of associations between environmental features and motor patterns (Siegel & White, 1975). As Kausler(1985) has indicated, most laboratory studies using serial and paired-associate learning procedures have shown age-related decrements in adults' memorization skills. Direct studies of route learning in elderly adults have been rare. ...
Young and elderly women's performances on scene-recognition, distance-ranking, route-execution, and map-placement tasks were compared in familiar and novel supermarkets to seek evidence of an age-related deficit in spatial cognitive performance, a benefit of environmental familiarity, and an age-related decrement in the efficiency of spatial learning. Results suggested that younger adults acquired spatial information in a novel environment more quickly than did elderly adults, but findings indicated neither an age-related deficit in spatial cognitive performance nor a benefit of environmental familiarity. Scores from psychometric tests produced low correlations with cognitive task performance. Of the behaviors observed during exploration and route execution, only 1 was significantly correlated with cognitive task performance. Standing without scanning was negatively correlated with performance on 3 tasks for elderly adults only.
... The motivating question for this experiment was whether word-level, constituent-level, and sentence-level factors would differentially contribute to reading times for younger and older adults. Because microlevel operations tend to become automatic (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974) and age differences are generally more pronounced for more effortful, nonautomatic processes (Kausler, 1985), it was predicted that the reading times of older adults would be differentially increased by constituentlevel and sentence-level factors, but not by word-level factors. ...
Word-by-word reading times were measured for young and elderly adults who read single sentences for immediate recall. The reading strategies of young and old were similar in that both groups allocated time to process word-level and constituent-level features. Young and elderly readers differed mainly in how they allocated time for organizational processing: Whereas younger adults allocated extra processing time at sentence boundaries as well as at major and minor clause boundaries, older adults allocated extra time at major and minor clause boundaries only. Results were generally consistent with the notions that processes that are more microlevel (e.g., word access) become automatic with practice and that age deficits are minimal for such processes. Age differences in organization time allocated at clause boundaries, however, suggested age-related limitations in working memory processing.
... The capacity of working memory has been shown to decrease with age (Salthouse, 1991), resulting in less information able to be held for processing in working memory. Information in working memory is held there via rehearsal, which is either repeating information or making meaningful connections between information in working memory and information already memorized (Craik & Lockhart, 1972;Kausler, 1985). The immediate recall task in the present investigation assessed information that was partially memorized (Howe, 1988), resulting in a task highly dependent on working memory. ...
Remembering medical information over time is important for patients' health and well-being. Younger and older adults' respective memories of information from a videotaped medical feedback session about osteoarthritis were examined as a function of information organization. Participants were randomly assigned to either an organized or an unorganized presentation condition. Retention was assessed immediately, and after 1-week and 1-month delays, by use of a free-recall task. Younger and older adults in general remembered equivalent amounts of medical information. Organization of medical information did not have an impact on the amount of information remembered. Results indicated that participants recalled more medical information immediately than after the 1-week and 1-month delays. Younger adults initially recalled more medical information than older adults; however, younger and older adults remembered equivalent amounts of information after the 1-week and 1-month delays.
Having left your house, you suddenly wonder if you turned off the stove. It is quite likely that you cannot remember for certain having done so. As a precautionary measure, you return home only to find that the stove has indeed been shut off. Such a situation is often accompanied by some self-deprecating remark concerning faulty memory function.
Activity memory represents an important new paradigm in cognitive gerontology because it includes tasks that have ecological validity for older adults and tasks that are not as strongly influenced by strategic processing as traditional verbal memory tasks. This review of the literature, including new data, reveals that the magnitude of age differences in activity memory is strongly influenced by the types of tasks and items that have been employed in the literature. In addition, the impact of motor and object cues, and organization are discussed, with an emphasis on the notion that age differences may be controlled by the interaction of these task characteristics. Activity memory provides a generally familiar context for learning and it is affected by the ease of remembering item-specific information. Consistent with the traditional verbal memory literature, age differences can be explained by the degree to which an activity memory task supports or guides strategic processing.
One purpose of the present chapter is to question the extent to which memory complaints center on the appropriate mechanism. I contend that a substantial percentage of memory complaints has little to do with memory but rather is due to faulty attentional allocation. This position can be defended on grounds that the human information-processing system is limited in its capacity to process environmental information, thus necessitating selective processing of stimuli available to an observer. Should selective processing be misdirected away from a source of to-be-remembered information, that information will not be encoded into the memory system and will subsequently be unavailable to retrieval efforts, not because of faulty storage or retrieval but instead due to a failure to register the information in the first place. Such a fate may await not only information that is unattended by failure to direct processing resources accordingly but also information that is not fully attended due to its habitual, or automatically processed, nature. In other words, information that is processed automatically is unlikely to be recalled at a later time because of insufficient attentional allocation at initial exposure.
When we speak of memory, it is usually of conscious recollection. I conclude that I remember someone’s name if I am able to recall it when we meet or, failing that, am able to recognize that the name is familiar when the person announces it. Psychologists and other scholars have not limited their definition of memory solely to such explicit measures, as Schacter’s (1987) historical review outlines, but explicit measures have, nonetheless, dominated the study of memory. The laboratory tests most frequently used require that the person report a conscious recollection of the tested event. This is true both for recall tests (e.g., “What words were in the list you just studied?” “Tell me everything you remember of the paragraph you just read.”) and for recognition tests (e.g., “Was the word ABODE in the list you just studied?” “Did the paragraph you read state that Fred was a carpenter?”).
As everyone knows, and as this volume clearly attests, the ability to process information undergoes substantial change throughout adulthood. Although considerable variability exists in the rates at which these cognitive functions develop in adulthood (e.g., Baltes & Willis, 1982; Denney, 1984), a number of writers have speculated that changes observed on specific cognitive tasks (e.g., episodic memory, speeded classification, problem solving, decision making, etc.) are actually the consequence of changes in some general or common component that uniformly alters information-processing abilities (e.g., slows, produces more errors, etc.) (cf. Cerella, 1985; Hasher & Zacks, 1979; Salthouse, 1982, and this volume). Others have suggested that these developments may be brought about by age-related changes in a number of different factors (e.g., spontaneous strategic processing [Perlmutter & Mitchell, 1982], attentional resources [Craik & Byrd, 1982], etc.).
This chapter presents the basic concepts in cognition and aging. For a broad range of cognitive skills the authors explore the evidence for age-related changes in functioning, and provide some ideas about remediation in some cases where there is evidence of cognitive decline. The present chapter sets the stage for those explorations by providing some historical context and a cursory overview of basic theoretical concepts and models of cognitive functioning, as well as some of the major issues in aging research. While the primary audience of this volume is those scholars working in the area of cognitive aging, the readership is assumed to extend beyond that group. With the intent of making the book accessible to that wider audience, this introductory chapter provides basic concepts in cognition and aging. This chapter provides a conceptual framework and research methodologies which underlie the material. The information processing framework has borrowed heavily from the terminology and concepts of the rapidly developing computer technology for the storage and processing of information. The processes by which people take in information and make an internal record of it are commonly called encoding and storage processes.
With elderly people becoming an ever larger part of our society, the usability of modern technical products for these people is becoming an ever more important issue. Instructions that optimally fit the needs of this elderly audience could enhance the usability of the products they belong to. The study described in this article is aimed at an investigation of this gerontological research literature to find out what is already known about age deficiencies in cognitive processes which might adversely influence instructional text processing. On the basis of the findings from this research, tentative guidelines could be given on how such manuals could be designed and written. Moreover, we propose several kinds of follow-up research that still have to be carried out to gather more knowledge on the topic of manuals for the elderly.
The effects of personal control on memory for spoken language were investigated by allowing younger and older adults to take actual control of the input conditions of recorded narratives under one condition and requiring them to listen without interruption in another. Subjects were also administered the ADEPT‐PIC, a measure of control beliefs in intellectual contexts, as well as a working memory span task measuring the ability to hold and manipulate linguistic information simultaneously in memory. Older adults were less likely than younger adults to take actual control of the speech input, although age differences in perceived control were minimal, suggesting that actual and perceived control are relatively independent influences in the determination of age differences in cognitive performance. These constructs were, nevertheless, interrelated: perceived control was a stronger predictor of prose memory when no actual control was available. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of working memory for mediating the relationship between perceived control and discourse processing. Implications for older adults in instructional contexts are examined.
Lexical encoding-retrieval processes in sentence production and semanticpragmatic relevance in discourse and specified as deficits in language processing in the early phase of senile dementia of Alzheimer's type (SDAT). Research on language processing in ageing and neurolinguistic architecture is combined in order to develop a framework for further research which can indicate a link between deterioration in language processing and progress in neuropathology in SDAT.
Based on current theories in psycholinguistics and neuropsychology, this article explores changes in episodic‐semantic structure of declarative memory associated with aging and dementia‐related deficits. A qualitative scoring of verbatim responses on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised (WAIS‐R) Vocabulary subtest allowed us to investigate relationships of language processing level to age and education in 156 healthy 58‐ to 85‐year‐olds. We also compared response patterns of two groups hypothesized to be at‐risk for dementia to a well group individually matched to the at‐risk groups on age, education, and sex (n = 19 per group). Results revealed that both at‐risk groups differed significantly from the well group on frequency of responses falling into the “semantic field” subcategory, which is also sensitive to general educational level, but not to aging per se. These findings suggest that a decline in frequency of semantic‐field responses may be an early marker of dementia, a critically important hypothesis that will receive follow‐up testing with these participants.
New investigations in memory and aging have focused on practical memory. The benefits of this new focus are to confirm findings based on laboratory research and to discover new variables that may influence age‐related differences in performance. Three areas of practical memory research are reviewed here. Spatial memory skills are influenced by familiarity and organization. Activity memory appears to be affected by automaticity, familiarity, and motor cues. Recall of names and faces is related to elaborative processing and overlearning. The diverse task‐specific findings require new theoretical and methodological integration, with specification of the critical differences between practical and laboratory tasks.
Demographic developments, characterized by ungreening' and greying' of the population at the same time, necessitate the reconsidering of early retirement schemes in general and possible those of military professionals as well. Keeping people in the services at older ages asks for continued training and education as the only way to keep people fit for the jobs and to prevent that their skills and knowledge become obsolete. Training and education has to be compatible with the sensory and cognitive changes with age as well the tasks and roles aging people are best suited for. Changes in the sensory functions are undeniable: the eyes have lost their accommodation function at 60.
Although it is generally acknowledged that decrements in long-term memory play an important role in the decline of everyday cognitive functioning in adulthood, problems have arisen in localizing the source of these memory deficits. In this article we address three of the methodological and measurement issues that have led to difficulties in interpreting research on adulthood developmental differences in acquisition and long-term retention. Specifically, these issues are stages-of-learning confounds, failures to separate storage and retrieval processes, and failures to separate forgetting from other factors that influence long-term retention tests. A general framework is presented in which each of these problems is dealt with. This model is subsequently applied to an experiment that examined the acquisition and long-term retention of pictures and words in associative memory in both young and old adults. The major findings were that (a) the picture-word manipulation had asymmetrical effects on acquisition and retention, (b) these asymmetries were different for the young and old adults, and (c) the locus (storage/retrieval) of age differences was different at acquisition than at retention. These results strongly suggest that the rules governing acquisition and forgetting are different, not only within age groups, but also across developmental levels in adulthood. More importantly, because the locus of developmental differences was different for acquisition and forgetting, it may be that different mechanisms underly the processing deficits experienced by the elderly when acquiring information than when trying to retain that information over extended periods of time.
The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that there is a differential deficit in the ability to encode contextual information with increasing age. Young, middle-aged, and elderly adults were shown target words in various quadrants of a computer screen (contexts) and were told to either (a) remember the words and their locations, (b) remember the words, or (c) tell whether the words referred to something that was alive or not. Following presentation of the words, subjects were given a recognition test for the words and were asked to identify the quadrant in which each word had been presented. If older adults have a contextual encoding deficit, than an interaction between age and instruction condition would be expected in memory for quadrants. Older adults would be expected to perform better relative to younger adults when the locations were target information (intentionally learned) than when they were contextual (not intentionally learned). Since such an interaction was not obtained, the results provide no support for the hypothesis that the elderly have an encoding deficit that is specific to contextual information.
This study compares performance of 24 young normal-hearing (aged 18-28 years) and 24 elderly (aged 61-85 years) listeners on auditive (sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and temporal resolution), cognitive (memory performance, processing speed, and divided attention ability), and speech perception tests (at the phoneme, spondee, and sentence level). Its principal aim is to assess whether the tests selected yield meaningful results. The results obtained will be used to reduce the test battery in order to be manageable in a second study on a much larger number of elderly listeners. The relationships between the tests are explored by multivariate statistical methods. The results show that: (a) in young listeners, individual differences in speech perception performance are remarkably small resulting in low correlations between the tests, while in the elderly tests of phoneme, spondee, and sentence perception overlap considerably; (b) speech perception in the elderly seems to be largely determined by hearing loss at the higher frequencies, whereas the effects of other auditive and cognitive factors seem to be relatively small or absent; and (c) performance in the elderly is only partly correlated with age.
Research with laboratory rats and humans demonstrating that the usual age-related deficits in spatial working memory can be attenuated or eliminated by prior training earlier in adult life is reviewed and possible mechanisms for this phenomenon are considered. A new technique for measuring remote memory for spatial information in humans is described and preliminary results with demented patients are discussed.
Experimental psychological research on performance in relation to age is outlined to show how aims, methods and interests have developed between the pioneering days of the 1940s and the present time. More detailed consideration is then given to the actual and potential applications to studies of aging of the quantitative methods of Information and Signal Detection Theories, and to the importance of taking account not only of correct performance but of the frequency and nature of errors if age changes are to be fully understood. Research in relation to age on continued performance is discussed, including short-term serial effects and the longer terms effects of fatigue, learning and practice, and the need for further research in these areas is emphasised. Guiding principles for future psychological research on aging are briefly urged.
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