Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 6, 2025

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
Episodic memory and ageing: the role of cognitive reserve factors and cognitive resources according to task
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 memory system which is most affected by ageing. However, similar memory decline is not seen in all older adults. Various cognitive reserve factors, such as the Openness Personality Trait and level of educational attainment, and cognitive resources linked to these factors, such as executive control and crystallised 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 difficulty of the task.
Methods:
Forty participants (aged between 60 and 82) learned 24 paired words with two encoding conditions (reading and generation), and then performed a cued recall. They were asked for their level of educational attainment, and their openness, executive control and crystallised knowledge levels were respectively measured using a personality questionnaire (Big Five), an inhibition test (Stroop) and a vocabulary test (Mill Hill).
Results:
Only crystallised knowledge predicts older adults' recall of generated words while openness and executive control predict and mediate the effect of level of education on older adults' recall of read words.
Conclusion:
Openness is a reserve factor and is an essential component, along with executive control, in difficult memory tasks.
More Related Videos
07:01Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
Published on: September 20, 2020
10:13Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach
Published on: February 14, 2014
Related Concept Videos
Cognitive Development During Adulthood
Working Memory
Interference and Decay
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...
Role of Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex in Memory
Information Processing Approach
Aging
Cellular Clock Theory
The cellular clock theory posits that the human lifespan is closely tied to the finite capacity of cells to divide, a phenomenon governed by telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of...