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Updated: Aug 28, 2025
09:13
A Real-world What-Where-When Memory Test
Published on: May 16, 2017
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Cognitive mechanisms underlying free recall in episodic memory performance across the lifespan: testing the
Laurence Taconnat1,2, Badiâa Bouazzaoui3,4, Cédric Bouquet4,5
1Université de Tours, Tours, France. laurence.taconnat@univ-tours.fr.
Psychological Research
|September 15, 2022
Summary
Episodic memory (EM) development relies on increasing knowledge representation, while its decline in aging is linked to reduced cognitive control. These distinct cognitive resources influence memory across the lifespan.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience of aging
- Human development
Background:
- Episodic memory (EM) exhibits an inverted U-shaped developmental trajectory, peaking in early adulthood and declining thereafter.
- Cognitive control and knowledge representation are hypothesized to underpin these changes in EM performance.
- Understanding the distinct roles of these cognitive resources is crucial for explaining memory development and aging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the differential contributions of cognitive control and knowledge representation to episodic memory across the lifespan.
- To determine how these cognitive factors influence episodic memory development from childhood to adulthood and its subsequent decline in aging.
Main Methods:
- A free-recall task was administered to assess episodic memory.
- Tests measuring cognitive control and knowledge representation were used.
- Participants aged 8 to 80 years were included in the study.
Main Results:
- Episodic memory and cognitive control scores showed an inverted U-shaped profile across age.
- Knowledge representation scores increased linearly across the lifespan.
- Episodic memory was associated with representation at all ages, but with control only in younger and adult groups.
Conclusions:
- Episodic memory development is primarily driven by increasing knowledge representation.
- Episodic memory decline in aging is mainly attributed to a decrease in cognitive control, with a smaller contribution from representation.
- The cognitive resources supporting episodic memory development and decline are distinct.
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