Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
Published on: September 20, 2020
Saying it with a natural child's voice! When affective auditory manipulations increase working memory in aging
Nicola Mammarella1, Beth Fairfield, Elisa Frisullo
1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy. n.mammarella@unich.it
Objectives:
Working memory functions and their relations with affective auditory factors, have not been extensively investigated in aging yet.
Method:
In this study, younger and older participants completed a classical working memory test (a running working memory task) pronounced by three different voices. In particular, in Experiment 1 the natural voices of a 3-year-old child, a 26-year-old young adult and an 86-year-old older adult were used for task presentation. In Experiment 2 stimuli were morphed in order to better control for sound properties across the three voices.
Results:
Results showed that working memory increased for older adults compared to younger adults when the task was presented with natural voices and especially so when the task was presented in a child's voice. However, the child-voice effect disappeared with morphed voices.
Conclusion:
Data confirm the importance of studying the relationship between auditory features and emotional variations as a possible practical means of reducing typical age-related working memory deficits.
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