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Using attribute amnesia to test the limits of hyper-binding and associative deficits in working memory
John M McCormick-Huhn1, Hui Chen2, Bradley P Wyble1
1Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University.
Psychology and Aging
|March 2, 2018
Summary
Older adults show attribute amnesia in working memory, similar to younger adults at low loads. However, at high loads, older adults exhibit deficits in binding target attributes, suggesting expectancy is crucial but insufficient for high-demand tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Aging Research
Background:
- Mixed evidence exists on age-related working memory binding deficits.
- The attribute amnesia effect probes associative binding by testing recall of target-defining attributes.
- This study investigates the associative-deficit hypothesis and hyper-binding in aging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the associative-deficit hypothesis in working memory using the attribute amnesia effect.
- To determine if hyper-binding extends to de-selected information in older adults.
- To examine the role of expectancy in older adults' working memory binding.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the attribute amnesia effect paradigm with varying working memory loads.
- Compared attribute amnesia and target attribute recall between younger and older adults.
- Assessed performance on surprise trials to measure binding of de-selected information.
Main Results:
- Older adults exhibited attribute amnesia comparable to younger adults under low working memory load.
- Under high working memory load, older adults showed attribute amnesia and a deficit in target attribute recall.
- Expectancy appears critical for older adults' encoding and binding, but insufficient under high task demands.
Conclusions:
- Results provide conditional support for the associative-deficit hypothesis in working memory.
- A boundary condition for hyper-binding was identified in older adults.
- Expectancy plays a significant role in older adults' working memory binding, especially under high cognitive load.
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