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Updated: Nov 4, 2025

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
[Episodic memory and aging: The role of cognitive reserve and cognitive resources according to task difficulty]
Léa Martinez1, Séverine Fay1, Tugba Onsekiz1
1Université de Tours, Université de Poitiers, UMR-CNRS 7295 « Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage », France.
Background:
Episodic memory is the most affected memory system in aging. However, memory decline is not similar in every older adult. Various cognitive reserve factors, as Openness personality trait or educational level, and cognitive resources linked to these factors, as executive control and crystallized knowledge, can predict older adults' memory performance.
Objective:
This study examined the link between and the role of these variables in older adults' memory performances according to the task difficulty.
Methods:
Forty participants (60-82 years old) learned 24 paired words with two encoding conditions (reading and generation) and then performed a cued recall. Their educational level was asked, and their Openness, executive control and crystallized knowledge levels were respectively measured using a personality questionnaire (Big Five), an inhibition test (Stroop) and a vocabulary test (Mill Hill).
Results:
Only crystallized knowledge predicts older adults' generated words recall while Openness and executive control predict and mediate educational level effect on older adults' read words recall.
Conclusion:
Openness is a reserve factor and is an essential component, along with executive control, in difficult memory tasks.
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