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07:01
Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
Published on: September 20, 2020
Working memory in the oldest-old: evidence from output serial position curves
Emily M Elliott1, Katie E Cherry, Jennifer Silva Brown
1Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA. eelliott@lsu.edu.
Memory & Cognition
|June 16, 2011
Summary
Older adults show significant declines in working memory, especially in complex tasks like size judgment span. This highlights age-related changes in cognitive processing strategies in later life.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience of Aging
- Human Development
Background:
- Working memory is more susceptible to age-related decline than short-term memory.
- Understanding age differences in memory is crucial for healthy aging research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in short-term and working memory performance.
- To examine how different memory tasks reveal age effects in adults.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of recall data from forward digit span, backward digit span, and size judgment span tasks.
- Examined output serial position curves to assess memory recall patterns.
- Correlational analyses to determine the relationship between age and memory performance.
Main Results:
- The oldest adult groups (75+) showed the most significant recall decreases in the size judgment span task.
- Recall performance differences between the two oldest groups were not statistically significant.
- The size judgment span task demonstrated the strongest negative correlation with increasing age.
Conclusions:
- Working memory, particularly strategic processing involved in tasks like size judgment, is highly sensitive to aging.
- Findings suggest age-related declines in cognitive strategies impact memory recall in older adults.
- The size judgment span task may serve as a sensitive measure for cognitive aging research.
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