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Updated: May 8, 2026
04:30
An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing
Published on: October 25, 2019
Hyper-binding across time: age differences in the effect of temporal proximity on paired-associate learning.
Karen L Campbell1, Alexandra Trelle1, Lynn Hasher1
1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto.
Summary
Older adults exhibit excessive memory binding, leading to more errors in paired-associate learning. This suggests older adults form broader associations, impacting memory recall and recognition.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience of Aging
- Human Memory
Background:
- Older adults often exhibit hyper-binding, an excessive memory effect for distractors.
- This phenomenon may influence various learning and memory processes, including associative learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of hyper-binding in paired-associate learning among older adults.
- To compare the associative recognition performance of older and younger adults.
Main Methods:
- Participants learned word pairs and completed an associative recognition task.
- Rearranged pairs were presented, varying the proximity of original word pair items in the study list.
- Performance was assessed by analyzing false alarm rates for near versus far re-pairings.
Main Results:
- Older adults showed significantly more false alarms for near re-pairings compared to far re-pairings.
- Younger adults did not exhibit a difference in false alarms between near and far re-pairings.
- This indicates a specific deficit in older adults' ability to differentiate associations based on temporal proximity.
Conclusions:
- Hyper-binding in older adults contributes to difficulties in paired-associate learning.
- Older adults' tendency to maintain broader access to recently attended information may underlie these associative memory deficits.
- Findings highlight age-related differences in memory binding and associative recognition.
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