A group of older adults with good hearing and a group with mild-to-moderate hearing loss were tested for recall of the final three words heard in a running memory task. Near perfect recall of the final words of the three-word sets by both good- and poor-hearing participants allowed the inference that all three words had been correctly identified. Nevertheless, the poor-hearing group recalled significantly fewer of the nonfinal words than did the better hearing group. This was true even though both groups were matched for age, education, and verbal ability. Results were taken as support for an effortfulness hypothesis: the notion that the extra effort that a hearing-impaired listener must expend to achieve perceptual success comes at the cost of processing resources that might otherwise be available for encoding the speech content in memory.

A dual-task interference paradigm was used to investigate the effect of perceptual effort on recall of spoken word-lists by younger and older adults with good hearing and with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. In addition to poorer recall accuracy, listeners with hearing loss, especially older adults, showed larger secondary task costs while recalling the word-lists even though the stimuli were presented at a sound intensity that allowed correct word identification. Findings support the hypothesis that extra effort at the sensory-perceptual level attendant to hearing loss has negative consequences to downstream recall, an effect that may be further magnified with increased age.Keywords hearing loss; aging; speech processing; dual-task; memory Age-related hearing loss is the third most prevalent chronic medical condition among older adults (Lethbridge-Ceijku, Schiller, & Bernadel, 2004). When accompanied by age-related declines in attentional resources (Craik & Byrd, 1982), working memory capacity (Kausler, 1994), and processing speed (Salthouse, 1996), one can see the challenge facing many older adults as they attempt to comprehend and remember fast-paced speech in their everyday lives. In addition to missed or incorrectly identified words, diminished hearing may also lead to impoverished, less discriminable memory traces (Surprenant, 2007). There is, however, an additional concern. As argued initially by Rabbitt (1968Rabbitt ( , 1991, and subsequently supported by others, successful perception in the face of degraded input may come at the cost of attentional resources that might otherwise be available for encoding what has been heard in memory (e.g., McCoy, Tun, Cox, Colangelo, Stewart & Wingfield, 2005;Murphy, Craik, Li & Schneider, 2000;Pichora-Fuller, 2003;van Boxtel et al., 2000; Suprenant, 1999 Suprenant, , 2007.This potential contributor to poorer memory performance associated with hearing loss, a socalled "effortfulness hypothesis", has until now been inferred from performance on the memory task itself. This hypothesis would thus be strengthened by an independent measure of resource allocation attendant to successful recognition by individuals with good versus poor hearing. One solution is to use a dual-task paradigm in which participants are asked to listen to and recall speech materials as a primary task while also conducting a concurrent secondary task.Address Correspondence to: Dr. Patricia A. Tun, Volen National Center for Complex Systems (MS 013), Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, Tel: 781-736-3273, Fax: 781-736-3275, tun@brandeis.edu or wingfield@brandeis.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any ver...

In 2 experiments, young and older adults heard target speech presented in quiet or with a competing speaker in the background. The distractor consisted either of meaningful speech or nonmeaningful speech composed of randomly ordered word strings (Experiment 1) or speech in an unfamiliar language (Experiment 2). Tests of recall for the target speech showed that older adults, but not younger adults, were impaired more by meaningful distractors than by nonmeaningful distracters. However, on a surprise recognition test, young adults were more likely than older adults to recognize meaningful distractor items. These results suggest that reduced efficiency in attentional control is an important factor in older adults' difficulty in recalling target speech in the presence of a background of competing speech.

Three experiments have demonstrated that age-related increases in both probability and speed of false recognitions for word lists depended on the use of a gist-based memory strategy. When test conditions promoted a gist strategy, both younger and older participants were as likely to falsely recognize a thematically associated lure as to correctly recognize a studied item, and both groups were equally fast in making these decisions. However, when test conditions deemphasized a gist-based strategy, older adults were more likely than younger adults, and faster, to falsely recognize both strong and weakly associated lures. These findings suggest an age-related increase in reliance on gist-based processing that may underlie age differences in false memory.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that frequent participation in cognitive activities can moderate the effects of limited education on cognitive functioning. Design:A national study of adult development and aging, Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), with assessments conducted at the second wave of measurement in 2004-2006. Setting: Assessments were made over the telephone (cognitive measures) and in a mail questionnaire (demographic variables, measures of cognitive and physical activity, and self-rated health).Participants: A total of 3343 men and women between the ages of 32 and 84 with a mean age of 55.99. Measurements:The dependent variables were Episodic Memory (Immediate and Delayed Word List Recall) and Executive Functioning (Category Fluency, Backward Digit Span, Backward Counting Speed, Reasoning, and Attention Switching Speed). The independent variables were years of education and frequency of cognitive activity (reading, writing, doing word games or puzzles, and attending lectures). The covariates were age, sex, self-rated health, income, and frequency of physical activity. Results:The two cognitive measures were regressed on education, cognitive activity frequency, and their interaction, while controlling for the covariates. Education and cognitive activity were significantly correlated with both cognitive abilities. The interaction of education and cognitive activity was significant for episodic memory, but not for executive functioning. Conclusion:Those with lower education had lower cognitive functioning, but this was qualified by level of cognitive activity. For those with lower education, engaging frequently in cognitive activities showed significant compensatory benefits for episodic memory, which has promise for reducing social disparities in cognitive aging. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Keywords NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptAm J Geriatr Psychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 January 1. OBJECTIVEEducation differences are a key source of social disparities and variability in cognitive functioning.(1) Higher levels of education are tied to better cognitive functioning throughout adulthood (2-5) and a lower risk for dementia.(6-12) One possible mechanism whereby the long term effects of higher education for cognition could be realized is that those with higher education have advantages and resources that allow them to engage more often in cognitively challenging activities. (13)(14)(15) There is evidence that engaging in frequent cognitive activities results in improved cognitive performance.(16-21) For example, in a recent rev...