Effects of age and a divided attention task presented during encoding and retrieval on memory

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Development

Background:

• Memory performance often declines with age.
• Previous research suggests retrieval is particularly challenging for older adults.
• The impact of divided attention on memory across the lifespan needs further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age differences in memory performance under conditions of divided attention.
• To determine if divided attention affects memory encoding or retrieval differently in older versus younger adults.
• To test the hypothesis that retrieval is more susceptible to attentional demands in older adults.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted using word-list recall tasks.
• Participants (young and older adults) performed a secondary number-monitoring task during encoding, retrieval, or both.
• Experiment 2 increased retrieval task demands with a cued-recall paradigm.

Main Results:

• Older adults' free recall and clustering significantly declined more than younger adults' when attention was divided during encoding.
• Divided attention during retrieval did not produce differential age effects in either experiment.
• Results were consistent across both experiments, even with increased retrieval difficulty.

Conclusions:

• Age-related memory deficits are more pronounced when attention is divided during the encoding phase.
• The findings contradict theories emphasizing retrieval deficits as the primary cause of age-related memory decline.
• Limited processing resource models may not fully explain age differences in memory under divided attention.