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Part-List Cuing Impairment in Older Adults: Evidence for Two Distinct Mechanisms
1Faculty for Social Sciences, Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences, Rosenheim, Germany.
Background:
Part-list cuing impairment is the counterintuitive finding that presenting a subset of previously studied items as a retrieval cue can impair memory for the remaining items. This study examined the temporal persistence of part-list cuing impairment in younger and older adults.
Methods:
Younger and older adults studied item lists under two encoding conditions: a single study trial versus two study-test cycles, the latter assumed to induce more associative encoding than the former. Participants then completed a critical test with part-list cues to assess the initial effect, followed by a final uncued test to assess the persistence of part-list cuing impairment.
Results:
Part-list cuing impairment was lasting when items were encoded through a single study trial, but transient when items were encoded through two study-test cycles. This encoding-dependent dissociation was observed equally in younger and older adults.
Conclusions:
The present findings provide evidence for two distinct, age-invariant mechanisms underlying part-list cuing impairment in younger and older adults: lasting retrieval inhibition in low associative encoding conditions, and transient strategy disruption in higher associative encoding conditions.
