Aging and memory as discrimination: Influences of encoding specificity, cue overload, and prior knowledge.

Abstract

From the perspective of memory-as-discrimination, whether a cue leads to correct retrieval simultaneously depends on the cue’s relationship to (a) the memory target and (b) the other retrieval candidates. A corollary of the view is that increasing encoding-retrieval match may only help memory if it improves the cue’s capacity to discriminate the target from competitors. Here, age differences in this discrimination process were assessed by manipulating the overlap between cues present at encoding and retrieval orthogonally with cue–target distinctiveness. In Experiment 1, associative memory differences for cue–target sets between young and older adults were minimized through training and retrieval efficiency was assessed through response time. In Experiment 2, age-group differences in associative memory were left to vary and retrieval efficiency was assessed through accuracy. Both experiments showed age-invariance in memory-as-discrimination: cues increasing encoding-retrieval match did not benefit memory unless they also improved discrimination between the target and competitors. Predictions based on the age-related associative deficit were also supported: prior knowledge alleviated age-related associative deficits (Experiment 1), and increasing encoding-retrieval match benefited older more than young adults (Experiment 2). We suggest that the latter occurred because older adults’ associative memory deficits reduced the impact of competing retrieval candidates—hence the age-related benefit was not attributable to encoding-retrieval match per se, but rather it was a joint function of an increased probability of the cue connecting to the target combined with a decrease in competing retrieval candidates.

The effects of output interference on metamemory and cued recall accuracy in young and older adults

“…This interpretation is consistent with later research suggesting that older adults have greater difficulty discriminating between targets and competitors without memory training (e.g. Badham et al, 2016).…”

Effects of familiar music exposure on deliberate retrieval of remote episodic and semantic memories in healthy aging adults

“…In particular, familiar stimuli associated with many events are weaker associative cues for episodic recall compared to stimuli only associated with one specific event (i.e. 'fan effects'; Badham et al, 2016;Tulving & Thomson, 1973). In the current study, if the familiar music clips were broadly associated with many events, it is possible that the spontaneous memories these clips elicited were gist-like, rather than strongly episodic.…”

The antimuscarinic agent biperiden selectively impairs recognition of abstract figures without affecting the processing of non‐words

“…The lack of effect for the non‐words may also be explained based on an age‐related difference in the use of pre‐existing semantic knowledge (Badham et al., 2016 ; de Chastelaine et al., 2017 ; Fraundorf et al., 2019 ). Belleville et al.…”