Syntactic complexity and adults' running memory span
Article Abstract:
In this model, short-term memory is compared with on-line computer processing, with a buffer to hold data until it is passed on to long-term memory. It is suggested that impairments of language comprehension occur when the capacity of the working memory buffer is exceeded, and that the capacity of this buffer declines with age. Complex syntactic structures may overload working memory capacity, which is more efficient when sentences are broken down into phrases, with a pause after each phrase. Fifty-nine elderly adults and 22 university students in a psychology course were recruited to take part in a study of the various aspects of memory. The adult group was divided into 32 young-old, aged 60 to 77 years, and old-old, aged 78 to 94 years. Recall, working memory span and comprehension were tested. All participants, old and young, recalled the second phrase of a two-clause sentence better than the first phrase. As complexity increased, memory declined, and running memory was better able to remember the main clause of the sentence. The elderly subjects remembered almost as many words as the college students in single-clause sentences, but recall declined by age group proportionally as sentence complexity increased. The old-old subjects' recall of successive single-clause sentences was 10 percent below that of the students, and their recall of subordinate clauses was 28 percent lower. These capacity limitations probably contribute to a decline in comprehension. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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Aging, inhibitory processes, and negative priming
Article Abstract:
The elderly appear less able to ignore irrelevant information and to treat only task-relevant information, a process called selective attention. Earlier research described this activity as one of selecting only relevant information; however, it appears that the process consists of both selecting relevant details and discarding irrelevant ones. The elderly may be less able to discard data because they cannot discriminate among complex stimuli, and they take longer over stimuli that are irrelevant or redundant. Twenty introductory psychology students and 20 elderly adults took part in a reading experiment, once with no distractions, and again with three different types of distractions. The results supported the view that older adults are less efficient at screening out irrelevant data (inhibitory function), but the effect was relatively small. Under two of the conditions the results tended not to support the hypothesis, but this could be explained by a habituation process that takes place when the environment is constant. Active inhibition of distractors is better when the situation is new or the information changes. The terms used in the research, such as active and passive, inhibition and habituation, have not yet been thoroughly clarified. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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Age differences in retrieval consistency and response dominance
Article Abstract:
With normal aging, memory for episodic tasks (retrieving the same items on repeated memory searches) declines, but semantic and procedural memory do not. The elderly may not be able to duplicate the information storage procedures as well during encoding. Seventy-two subjects, comprising equal numbers of older and younger adults, took part in an experiment involving two aspects of retrieval. In a second experiment, the same older subjects, but a new group of younger subjects, were tested for response consistency. The results indicated that there was no age difference in information retrieval. However, consistency of response generation showed a more complicated result. Older adults were less consistent than younger subjects when multiple responses were required, while at shorter intervals with restricted category (picture naming), they were more consistent than younger adults. As the intervals lengthened, the older adults' consistency declined. Subjects with lower verbal skill fared less well, and this may be why elderly subjects do not do as well as younger subjects, who in this case, as well as in many others, are college students. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Journals of Gerontology
Subject: Seniors
ISSN: 0022-1422
Year: 1991
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