The age-related associative deficit simulated by relational divided attention: encoding strategy and recollection

According to the associative deficit hypothesis, older adults experience greater difficulty in remembering associations between pieces of information than young adults, despite their relatively intact memory for individual items. It has been demonstrated that this deficit could be simulated by depleting resources for relational processing. The current study examines the possible mechanisms underlying this simulation. Item and associative memory were assessed using a process dissociation paradigm in which word pairs were encoded under full attention (FA) or relational divided attention (DA) conditions across three groups: FA older adults (n = 24), FA young adults (n = 24), and DA young adults (n = 24). Recollection and familiarity were estimated for the associative memory performance. Relative to FA young adults, both older adults and DA young adults showed an associative deficit, and reduced use of recollection and high-level relational encoding strategies. Regression analyses suggested that the effects of age and DA on associative memory were largely driven by the variance in recollection and encoding strategy use. The results suggest that depletion of attentional resources for relational processing impairs associative memory through disrupting the use of effective encoding strategies and recollection, which largely simulates age-related associative deficit.