Older adults' associative memory is modified by manner of presentation at encoding and retrieval

Amy A. Overman, John M. McCormick-Huhn, Nancy A. Dennis, Joanna M. Salerno, Alexandra P. Giglio

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Relative to young adults, older adults typically exhibit a reduced ability to accurately remember associations between stimuli. Prior research has assumed that this age-related memory impairment affects different types of associations similarly. However, research in young adults has suggested that item-item and item- context associations are supported by different underlying neural mechanisms that could be unequally affected by aging. This experiment compared memory across association types in younger and older adults by presenting the same types of stimuli as either item-item or item- context pairs. Manner of presentation during retrieval was also manipulated so that pairs were presented in a manner that was either congruent or incongruent with their presentation during encoding. Older adults showed a particular benefit of encoding-retrieval congruency for item- context associations, supporting the idea that the associative deficit may be reduced by unitization at encoding and reinstatement of this prior stimulus configuration at retrieval.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)82-92
Number of pages11
JournalPsychology and aging
Volume33
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Social Psychology
  • Aging
  • Geriatrics and Gerontology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Older adults' associative memory is modified by manner of presentation at encoding and retrieval'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this