Orienting Task Effects on EDR and Free Recall in Three Age Groups

Abstract

The present investigation was designed to examine the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on electrodermal response and free recall at two delay intervals for 94 young, 49 young-old (age 55 to 70), and 61 old-old (age 71 to 85) individuals. Subjects were presented with a list of 25 words and performed one of the following tasks: semantic, nonsemantic, or passive listening, presented in an incidental memory paradigm, or intentional memorization. Recall was obtained 2 min or 48 hours after list presentation. At the 2-min delay, the pattern of recall across tasks for the young-old and old-old subjects was similar to that of college students. Overall, the old-old recalled fewer words than the young and young-old, while the young-old recalled as many words as the young. After 48 hours, the task-related recall pattern was observed only in the young group. The skin conductance data indicated that task effects were similar across the three age groups and that response magnitude was lower in the old-old than the two younger groups. No differences in skin conductance were found between the young and young-old. Age differences in memory processing suggest that difficulties in delayed retrieval of semantically encoded words may increase during late adult years. Differences in electrodermal responses in the old-old compared to the young and young-old suggest that the range of autonomic responsivitiy to task demands may become restricted in advanced age.

Differential Effects of a List-Learning Mnemonic in Three Age Groups

“…A second explanation for this finding is a decline in the efficiency of retrieval processes with aging [Craik, 1977], Retrieval problems may, in fact, account for the findings of a semantic processing deficit in the aged [ West, 1981;Zelinski et al, 1978], Craik and Simon [1980], for example, found relatively larger age decrements with a semantic orienting task than with nonsemantic orienting tasks, but only when subjects were given a recall test; no such result was obtained when recog nition memory was assessed. It appears then that the elderly may be able to perform se mantic analyses as efficiently as the young if they are provided with strong retrieval cues at the time of testing.…”

Age Differences in Arousal, Perception of Affective Pictures, and Emotional Memory Enhancement: Appraisal, Electrodermal Activity, and Imaging Data

“…The findings of general age-related decrements in physiological reactivity are robust (Cacioppo, Berntson, Klein, & Poehlman, 1997;Ferrer, Ramos, Pérez-Sales, Pérez-Jiménez, & Alvarez, 1995;Frolkis, 1977;Furchtgott & Busemeyer, 1979;Low et al, 1997;Zelinski, Walsh, & Thompson, 1978). Given the close association between psychophysiological arousal and emotional experiences (e.g., Cacioppo et al, 1997), this has probably contributed to the view that associates aging with a period of emotional bluntness.…”

Depth of Processing and Text Recall in Adulthood

“…Thus, it was hypothesized that experimentally inducing semantic processing would serve to attenuate age-related recall differences. For both list materials (Mason, 1979;Zelinski, Walsh, & Thompson, 1978) and text materials (Cerella, Paulshock, & Poon, 1982;Simon, Dixon, Nowak, & Hultsch, 1982), the results are inconsistent. Simon et al (1982) found that young and old adults recalled an equivalent amount of text material under a shallow processing condition, and an equivalent but significantly higher amount under an intentional condition.…”