Integrative and semantic relations equally alleviate age-related associative memory deficits.

Abstract

Two experiments compared effects of integrative and semantic relations between pairs of words on lexical and memory processes in old age. Integrative relations occur when two dissimilar and unassociated words are linked together to form a coherent phrase (e.g., horse-doctor). In Experiment 1, older adults completed a lexical decision task where prime and target words were related either integratively or semantically. The two types of relation both facilitated responses compared to a baseline condition, demonstrating that priming can occur in older adults with minimal preexisting associations between primes and targets. In Experiment 2, young and older adults completed a cued recall task with integrative, semantic and unrelated word pairs. Both integrative and semantic pairs showed significantly smaller age differences in associative memory compared to unrelated pairs. Integrative relations facilitated older adults" memory to a similar extent as semantic relations despite having few preexisting associations in memory.Integratability of stimuli is therefore a new factor that reduces associative deficits in older adults, most likely by supporting encoding and retrieval mechanisms. showing greater age-related differences than others (e.g., Zacks, Hasher, & Li, 2000). In particular, episodic and contextual memory tend to exhibit larger age differences than content or item memory (Spencer & Raz, 1995). Naveh-Benjamin (2000) thus proposed an associative deficit hypothesis whereby older adults show specific deficits in forming associations between items. Naveh-Benjamin presented for study several pairs of unrelated words and then tested young and older adults" item memory (i.e., recognizing studied vs. new words) and their associative memory (i.e., recognizing intact vs. rearranged pairs). Older adults showed greater age deficits for associative memory than for item memory. A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that many studies have shown similar results (Old & Naveh-Benjamin, 2008).Research into age-related associative deficits has attempted to establish factors that can alleviate this memory deficit. One such factor is the semantic relatedness between to-beassociated items. Items are semantically related if they belong in the same category, such as shirt and sock, or are otherwise featurally similar, such as apple and ball. Naveh-Benjamin (2000, Exp. 4), Naveh-Benjamin, Hussain, Guez, and Bar-On (2003, Exp. 2) and Naveh-Benjamin, Craik, Guez, and Kreuger (2005 showed a reduction in age differences for associative memory with semantically related word pairs (e.g., shirt and sock) compared to unrelated word pairs (e.g., shirt and apple). Therefore, older adults are able to use semantic relations to enhance their associative memory performance relative to young adults. This finding suggests that older adults" associative memory deficit may be specific to new associations; older adults" memory for preexisting associations appears to be relatively unimpaired. Indeed, MacKay and Burke (1990) and Naveh-Benjamin an...

The effects of emotional arousal and gender on the associative memory deficit of older adults

“…Specifically, they extend the evidence obtained in Experiment 1 showing that older men, in particular, show a differential decline in associative relative to item memory. One intriguing finding is that the Age × Test interaction was not significant, which suggests that our use of more easily integrated items (adjective-noun pairs) might have helped reduce the AD of older adults (see Badham, Estes, & Maylor, 2011, for a similar finding).…”

Improving associative memory in older adults with unitization

“…Findings from recent studies provide further support that the age-related associative deficit is reduced or even eliminated when participants study pairs of categorically related items (Badham, Estes, & Maylor, 2012;Naveh-Benjamin, Craik, Guez, & Kreuger, 2005). Naveh-Benjamin et al (2005) suggested the preexisting semantic relations provided a schematic framework for learning the pairs and minimizing the need for initiating effortful encoding strategies.…”

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

“…Old & Naveh-Benjamin, 2008). Moreover, schematic support had a disproportionately beneficial effect on associative memory in OA relative to YA (Badham et al, 2012; Naveh-Benjamin et al, 2003). …”

“…In contrast, schema consistent stimuli successfully alleviated the age deficit in associative memory compared with schema inconsistent stimuli, even after controlling for general slowing in old age (cf. Badham et al, 2012; Naveh-Benjamin et al, 2003). …”