Autonomic responsivity during recognition memory processing in three age groups

Abstract

Thirty male volunteers in the age groups of young (18-34 years), middle-aged (35-54 years), and old (55-72 years) performed a recurrent recognition task of eight emotional and eight neutral words embedded in balanced 50-word lists while their electrodermal (EDR), heart rate (HR), and recognition responses were recorded. During testing, two hours and again one week following presentation of the 16 words, no marked differences among age groups were observed in EDR, but HR responses were lower in the old than in the young group. The old adopted high signal detection decision criteria for emotional words, which accounted for their lower recognition of emotional words in one measure. The old were as proficient as the young in recognition of neutral words. More emotional words were correctly recognized when a person's responsivity in HR and EDR was high, but this correlation was dissociated in the old. Heart rate changes but not EDR reflected a reduced responsivity in the old. The results place in question the use of peripheral autonomic measures as an index to memory processing.

Preferences for emotional information in older and younger adults: A meta-analysis of memory and attention tasks.

“…4In two articles, authors appeared to report data on the same study. Riege, Cohen, and Wallach (1980) and Wallach, Riege, and Cohen (1980) report identical data. In both articles, the authors describe data from an older adult sample that was tested for recognition of 16 target words (8 emotional, 8 neutral).…”

Memory in Middle‐aged Adults

“…Hit rates appear to be quite accurate, even in older adults. Using a serial list presentation paradigm, Riege, Cohen, and Wallach (1980) found no significant differences in recognition memory performance between their groups of young, middleaged, and older adults tested at delays of two hours and one week. In an attempt to manipulate word characteristics, Wallach, Riege, and Cohen (1980) first presented a list of 50 distractor words for their young, middle-aged, and older subjects to study.…”