Is There Anything Special About the Aging of Source Memory?

Abstract

A battery of cognitive tests designed to measure the constructs of episodic memory, perceptual speed, fluid ability, executive functioning, and vocabulary was administered to 330 adults between the ages of 18 and 89. Each participant also performed 4 different tasks designed to assess source memory. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the validity of a source-memory construct and to explore the relation of the source-memory construct to age and to the other cognitive variables. The variance common to the source-memory variables was strongly related to other cognitive abilities, suggesting that source memory may not have discriminant validity, and there were only small unique age-related effects on the source-memory construct after the influence of other abilities was considered.

Contextual analysis of fluid intelligence

“…However, the results of this project reveal that Gf is related to many different types of variables, including measures of monitoring the status of changing sequences of information, measures of memory for non-verbal information, and measures from a variety of simple tasks when some type of additional processing is required. Because these measures are quite diverse, it may not be reasonable to assume that one particular subset of them necessarily represents the core or essence of Gf without explaining the relations of Gf to the other measures.The idea that Gf encompasses a broad spectrum of controlled processing is consistent with earlier research which found strong relations between the Gf construct and the variance common to different variables hypothesized to reflect the neuropsychological construct of executive functioning (e.g., Salthouse, 2005b;Salthouse & Davis, 2006;Salthouse, et al, 2005). Although motivated from different research traditions and usually studied separately, the results of this and other recent studies suggest that research with cognitive, psychometric, and neuropsychological variables may have been characterizing essentially the same dimension of individual differences among normal healthy adults.…”

“…The same cognitive ability reference constructs listed in Table 1 and portrayed in Figure 1 have been used to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of latent constructs postulated to reflect executive functioning (Salthouse, Atkinson & Berish, 2003;Salthouse, Berish & Siedlecki, 2004;Salthouse & Davis, 2006), inhibition, updating, and time-sharing , source memory (Siedlecki, Salthouse & Berish, 2005) and prospective memory . However, there were two reasons for focusing on observed variables rather than latent constructs as the target variables in the current project.…”

“…If neither variable is found to have a Gf influence, then it is reasonable to infer that none of the aspects of processing involved in either of the tasks reflect Gf. However, the model in Figure 1 controls for effects on the complex variable that are mediated through the simple variable, and thus a discovery of significant effects of Gf on the complex variable would signify that there is a unique, or incremental, influence of Gf on the complex variable, above and beyond that on the simple variable.The same cognitive ability reference constructs listed in Table 1 and portrayed in Figure 1 have been used to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of latent constructs postulated to reflect executive functioning (Salthouse, Atkinson & Berish, 2003;Salthouse, Berish & Siedlecki, 2004;Salthouse & Davis, 2006), inhibition, updating, and time-sharing , source memory (Siedlecki, Salthouse & Berish, 2005) and prospective memory . However, there were two reasons for focusing on observed variables rather than latent constructs as the target variables in the current project.…”

Relations Between Cognitive Abilities and Measures of Executive Functioning.

“…k Salthouse and Babcock (1991). l Siedlecki, Salthouse, and Berish (2005). * p Ͻ .01. similar and were administered to the same individuals, the measures had different patterns of relations with the cognitive abilities.…”

Efeito de estratégias de codificação sobre a memória contextual em idosos

“…Apesar de ser uma questão de debate entre os pesquisadores, uma das possíveis explicações para os déficits de memória contextual associados ao envelhecimento recai sobre alterações nos mecanismos envolvidos na síntese de diferentes atributos para a formação de memórias complexas e nos processos envolvidos no acesso e na avaliação desses atributos contextuais das memórias (Siedlecki, Salthouse & Berish, 2005). Os achados do presente estudo dão suporte a esta hipótese, uma vez que os idosos só conseguiram obter desempenho semelhante ao dos jovens na tarefa de memória contextual na condição em que foram induzidos a realizar o vínculo entre o item e o contexto, mostrando dificuldade em realizá-lo espontaneamente.…”