The time course of encoding specific and gist episodic memory representations among young and older adults.

How rapidly can we encode the specifics versus the gist of episodic memories? Competing theories have opposing answers, but empirical tests are based primarily on tasks of item memory. Few studies have addressed this question with tasks measuring the binding of event components (e.g., a person and a location), which forms the core of episodic memory. None of these prior studies included older adults, whose episodic memories are less specific in nature. We addressed this critical gap by presenting face-scene pairs (e.g., an old man with a park) at various encoding presentation rates to 80 young (M = 21.83 years) and 86 older (M = 68.62 years) adults. Participants completed associative recognition tests featuring old/intact (e.g., the old man with the same park), similar (e.g., the old man with a different park), and unrelated (e.g., the old man with a kitchen) pairs. Multinomial-processing-tree model analyses revealed that young and older adults encoded each pair's gist representation more rapidly than its specific representation, supporting fuzzy-trace theory. No age-related differences in gist representations were obtained at any presentation rate, but older adults required more time to encode specific representations commensurate with those of younger adults. However, older adults' abilities to retrieve these representations were cue-dependent, as they were more susceptible than younger adults to experiencing vivid false memories of similar lures. These phantom recollections were remediated with further increases in encoding time. Thus, slower speed of encoding partially underlies age-related declines in episodic memory specificity, but retrieval mechanisms also play a role. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A lifespan study of the confidence-accuracy relation in working memory and episodic long-term memory.

The relation between an individual's memory accuracy and reported confidence in their memories can indicate self-awareness of memory strengths and weaknesses. We provide a lifespan perspective on this confidence-accuracy relation, based on two previously published experiments with 320 participants, including children aged 6-13, young adults aged 18-27, and older adults aged 65-77, across tests of working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM). Participants studied visual items in arrays of varying set sizes and completed item recognition tests featuring 6-point confidence ratings either immediately after studying each array (WM tests) or following a long period of study events (LTM tests). Confidence-accuracy characteristic analyses showed that accuracy improved with increasing confidence for all age groups and in both WM and LTM tests. These findings reflect a universal ability across the lifespan to use awareness of the strengths and limitations of one's memories to adjust reported confidence. Despite this age invariance in the confidence-accuracy relation, however, young children were more prone to high-confidence memory errors than other groups in tests of WM, whereas older adults were more susceptible to high-confidence false alarms in tests of LTM. Thus, although participants of all ages can assess when their memories are weaker or stronger, individuals with generally weaker memories are less adept at this confidence-accuracy calibration. Findings also speak to potential different sources of high-confidence memory errors for young children and older adults, relative to young adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Relation Between Attention and Memory.

The relation between attention and memory has long been deemed important for understanding cognition, and it was heavily researched even in the first experimental psychology laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt and his colleagues. Since then, the importance of the relation between attention and memory has been explored in myriad subdisciplines of psychology, and we incorporate a wide range of these diverse fields. Here, we examine some of the practical consequences of this relation and summarize work with various methodologies relating attention to memory in the fields of working memory, long-term memory, individual differences, life-span development, typical brain function, and neuropsychological conditions. We point out strengths and unanswered questions for our own embedded processes view of information processing, which is used to organize a large body of evidence. Last, we briefly consider the relation of the evidence to a range of other theoretical views before drawing conclusions about the state of the field.

Sex Differences and Similarities in Relations Between Mathematics Achievement, Attitudes, and Anxiety: A Seventh-to-Ninth Grade Longitudinal Study.

There are consistent correlations between mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety, but the longitudinal relations among these constructs are not well understood nor are sex differences in these relations. To address this gap, mathematics achievement, attitudes, and anxiety were longitudinally assessed for 342 (169 boys) adolescents from 7th to 9th grade, inclusive, and Latent Growth Curve Models were used to assess the relations among these traits and developmental change in them. Spatial abilities (7th, 8th grade) and trait anxiety (8th, 9th grade) were also assessed and used for control for sex differences in these traits. Overall, boys had stronger spatial abilities and more positive mathematics attitudes and were less anxious than girls, but there were no sex differences in mathematics achievement. Across grades, mathematics achievement improved, attitudes became less positive, and anxiety increased for both boys and girls. Higher than average cross-grade growth in mathematics achievement mitigated boys' developmental declines in mathematics attitudes and increases in anxiety. Girls with strong spatial abilities had lower mathematics anxiety, but girls overall maintained higher mathematics anxiety and less positive mathematics attitudes relative to boys, even when they showed strong cross-grade gains in mathematics achievement. The study demonstrated that longitudinal gains in mathematics are associated with cross-grade changes in attitudes and anxiety but with several different developmental patterns for boys and girls.

Differential attentional costs of encoding specific and gist episodic memory representations.

Theories of episodic memory posit that more attentional resources are needed for encoding specific compared to gist representations. This position has been challenged by recent findings of similar divided attention (DA) at encoding costs on both specific and gist representations. However, the disrupting effects of DA on specific representations may emerge under less difficult DA conditions than those under which effects on gist representations emerge. The present study addressed this possibility by manipulating the difficulty of a concurrent DA task (low, intermediate, or high difficulty) during encoding among 176 young adult participants, who encoded face-scene pairs under either full attention or one of the three levels of DA. During retrieval, participants discriminated intact pairs from recombined pairs that varied in how similar they were to studied pairs. Results, interpreted using a multinomial-processing-tree model of specific and gist memory, showed that the disrupting effects of DA on specific representations emerged under less difficult attentional loads (intermediate-demanding condition) compared to those under which gist representations were disrupted (high-demanding condition). These findings reinforce the suggestion of differential attentional demands for specific and gist representations and also provide insights into attentional resource theories of adult age-related cognitive decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Forgetting of specific and gist visual associative episodic memory representations across time.

Associative binding between components of an episode is vulnerable to forgetting across time. We investigated whether these forgetting effects on inter-item associative memory occur only at specific or also at gist levels of representation. In two experiments, young adult participants (n = 90, and 86, respectively) encoded face-scene pairs and were then tested either immediately after encoding or following a 24-hour delay. Tests featured conjoint recognition judgments, in which participants were tasked with discriminating intact pairs from highly similar foils, less similar foils, and completely dissimilar foils. In both experiments, the 24-hour delay resulted in deficits in specific memory for face-scene pairs, as measured using multinomial-processing-tree analyses. In Experiment 1, gist memory was not affected by the 24-hour delay, but when associative memory was strengthened through pair repetition (Experiment 2), deficits in gist memory following a 24-hour delay were observed. Results suggest that specific representations of associations in episodic memory, and under some conditions gist representations, as well, are susceptible to forgetting across time.

Adult age-related changes in the specificity of episodic memory representations: A review and theoretical framework.

We provide a comprehensive review describing research on the qualitative representational nature of older adults' episodic memories. Our review considers several broad theoretical frameworks and decades of research converging on a universal principle of adult aging: Episodic memory in older adulthood is characterized as being less specific in nature than in younger adulthood. Going beyond earlier specific reviews on related topics in the false memory, neuroscience, and reading comprehension literatures, our review synthesizes findings from these fields with more recent research from the precision literature, along with several new studies on age differences in the specificity of associative aspects of episodic memory, where age deficits have long been reported. We also sketch a new theoretical framework as inspiration for future research that can better elucidate the mechanisms underpinning age differences in the specificity of memory representations, including reduced attentional resources and slower speed of processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The formation of specific and gist associative episodic memory representations during encoding: Effects of rate of presentation.

Assessing the time course under which underlying memory representations can be formed is an important question for understanding memory. Several studies assessing item memory have shown that gist representations of items are laid out more rapidly than verbatim representations. However, for associations among items/components, which form the core of episodic memory, it is unclear whether gist representations form more quickly than, or at least in parallel with, verbatim representations, as fuzzy-trace theory predicts, or whether gist is extracted more slowly from inferring the meaning of verbatim representations, as in gist macroprocessor theories. To test these contrasting possibilities, we used a novel associative recognition task in which participants studied face-scene pairs for .75, 1.5, or 4 seconds each, and were later tested on their ability to discriminate intact pairs from foils which varied in how similar they were to originally studied pairs. Across 2 experiments, we found that verbatim memory for associations, measured using a multinomial-processing-tree model, improved from .75 to 1.5 to 4 seconds of presentation time. Paralleling these effects of encoding time on verbatim memory, for gist memory, there were improvements from .75 seconds to 1.5 seconds in both experiment 1 and 2, while improvements from 1.5 seconds to 4 seconds were only evident when the retention interval between study and test was increased (experiment 2). These results provide strong support for the parallel processing framework of fuzzy-trace theory over the slow gist extraction framework of an alternative gist macroprocessor theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The proportion of working memory items recoverable from long-term memory remains fixed despite adult aging.

We explored whether long-term memory (LTM) retrieval is constrained by working memory (WM) limitations, in 80 younger and 80 older adults. Participants performed a WM task with images of unique everyday items, presented at varying set sizes. Subsequently, we tested participants' LTM for items from the WM task and examined the ratio of LTM/WM retention. While older adults' WM and LTM were generally poorer than that of younger adults, their LTM deficit was no greater than what was predicted from their WM performance. The ability to encode WM information into LTM appeared immune to age-related cognitive decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Adult age differences in specific and gist associative episodic memory across short- and long-term retention intervals.

Age-related deficits in associative episodic memory have been widely reported, but recent research suggests that some of these deficits occur for highly specific but not gist representations. It remains undetermined whether older adults' deficits in specific associative episodic memory, observed in long-term memory, are also present in short-term memory. We used a continuous associative recognition task to address this question. Fifty young and 50 older adults studied face-scene pairs, with memory tests occurring in both short-term and long-term memory. Memory tests featured intact (old) pairs, related (similar) pairs, and unrelated (dissimilar) pairs. On short-term memory tests, older adults were less accurate in classifying related pairs, which was manifest by age-related reductions in the probability of retrieving specific memory to engage in recollection rejection. However, older adults were capable of remembering specific details in short-term memory for intact probes but were less likely to remember specific details in long-term memory. Finally, older adults were always as capable as younger adults of remembering gist details. Results suggest that older adults do at least partially encode specific representations in short-term memory, and their access to these specific representations is cue dependent-they can do so when there is a large correspondence between encoding and retrieval conditions but are less likely to engage in deeper elaboration at retrieval. This limits their ability to remember specific details of associations to suppress false recognitions in short-term memory and to engage in veridical recognition in long-term memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A tutorial on cognitive modeling for cognitive aging research.

Cognitive aging researchers are interested in understanding how cognitive processes change in old age, but the relationship between hypothetical latent cognitive processes and observed behavior is often complex and not fully accounted for in standard analyses (e.g., Analysis of variance [ANOVA]). Cognitive models formalize the relationship between underlying processes and observed behavior and are more suitable for identifying what processes are associated with aging. This article provides a tutorial on how to fit and interpret cognitive models to measure age differences in cognitive processes. We work with an example of a two choice discrimination task and describe how to fit models in the highly flexible modeling software Stan. We describe how to use hierarchical modeling to estimate both group and individual effects simultaneously, and we detail model fitting in a Bayesian statistical framework, which, among other benefits, enables aging researchers to quantify evidence for null effects. We contend that more widespread use of cognitive modeling among cognitive aging researchers may be useful for addressing potential issues of nonreplicability in the field, as cognitive modeling is more suitable to addressing questions about what cognitive processes are (or are not) affected by aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Online experimentation and sampling in cognitive aging research.

Online data collection methods have become increasingly popular in many domains of psychology, but their use in cognitive aging studies remains relatively limited. Is it time for cognitive aging researchers to embrace these methods? Here, we weigh potential advantages and disadvantages of conducting online studies with young and older adults, relative to lab-based studies, with a particular focus on the study of human memory and aging. With online studies, it may be possible to assess whether age-related effects on cognition obtained in the laboratory generalize to other situations with different environmental or subject characteristics. However, there are many open questions about the representativeness of older adults on online data collection platforms, and issues surrounding data quality, selection effects, and other biasing characteristics, which must be carefully handled in cognitive aging studies which recruit young and older adult participants online. We consider the benefit of conducting experimentation both in the lab and online in providing converging evidence on a research question, and we offer an example of an experiment on adult age differences in associative recognition that was conducted in the laboratory and online. We also provide practical recommendations for ways to maximize the potential for online studies to contribute to our understanding of cognitive aging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the use of phonological and semantic representations in working memory.

In the traditional conception of working memory for word lists, phonological codes are used primarily, and semantic codes are often discarded or ignored. Yet, other evidence indicates an important role for semantic codes. We carried out a preplanned set of four experiments to determine whether phonological and semantic codes are used similarly or differently. In each trial, random lists of one, two, three, four, six, or eight words were followed by a probe to be judged present in the list or absent from it. Sometimes, a probe was absent from the list but rhymed with a list item (in Experiments 1 and 2) or was a synonym of a list item (in Experiments 3 and 4). A probe that was similar to a list item was to be rejected just like other nontarget probes, a reject-similar use (in Experiments 1 and 3), or it was to be placed in the same category as list items, an accept-similar use (in Experiments 2 and 4). The results were comparable in the accept-similar use of both phonological and semantic codes. However, the reject-similar use was interestingly different. Rejecting rhyming items was more difficult than rejecting control words, as expected, whereas rejecting synonyms was easier than rejecting control words, presumably due to a recall-to-reject process. This effect increased with memory load. We discuss theoretically important differences between the use of phonology and semantics in working memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of divided attention at encoding on specific and gist-based associative episodic memory.

Effects of divided attention (DA) during encoding on later memory performance are widely documented. However, the precise nature of these effects on underlying memory representations and subsequent retrieval processes has not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we examined whether DA at encoding would disrupt young adults' ability to remember associations in episodic memory at highly specific levels of representation (i.e., verbatim memory), or whether the effects of DA extend also to gist memory for associations. Two groups of participants (one under full attention, one under DA) studied face-scene pairs. The DA group simultaneously completed an auditory choice reaction-time task during encoding. Following either a short or long delay, participants were tested on their ability to discriminate intact face-scene pairs from recombined pairs that were either highly similar, less similar, or completely unrelated to originally studied pairs. The DA group performed more poorly than the full attention participants at correctly classifying most types of test pairs at both delays, and results from a multinomial-processing-tree model demonstrated that participants who encoded associations under DA experienced deficits in both specific and gist memory retrieval. We also compared the DA group to full attention older adults who were tested with the same paradigm (Greene & Naveh-Benjamin, Psychological Science, 31[3], 316-331, 2020). The DA group had lower estimates of gist retrieval than the older adults but similar estimates of verbatim memory. These results suggest that DA at encoding disrupts episodic memories at multiple levels of representation, in contrast to age-related effects, which are restricted only to the highest levels of specificity.

Levels of specificity in episodic memory: Insights from response accuracy and subjective confidence ratings in older adults and in younger adults under full or divided attention.

We propose that the specificity with which associations in episodic memory can be remembered varies on a continuum. Older adults have been shown to forget highly specific information (Greene & Naveh-Benjamin, 2020b), and in Experiment 1, we provide further evidence that older adults' deficits in associative memory scale with the amount of specificity that needs to be retrieved. In Experiment 2, we address whether depleted attentional resources, simulated in young adults under divided attention at encoding, could account for older adults' associative memory specificity deficits. Participants studied face-scene pairs and later completed an associative recognition test, with test pairs that were old, highly similar or less similar to old pairs, or completely dissimilar. Participants rated their confidence in their decisions. False positive recognition responses increased with the amount of specificity needed to be retrieved. Whereas older adults' associative memory deficits scaled with how much specific information needed to be remembered, younger adults under divided attention had a more general deficit in associative memory. Confidence-accuracy analysis showed that participants were best able to calibrate their confidence when less specific information was needed to perform well. While divided attention young adults were generally prone to high-confidence errors, older adults' high-confidence errors were most apparent when highly specific information needed to be remembered. These results provide further evidence for levels of specificity in episodic memory. Access to the most specific levels is most vulnerable to forgetting, in line with a specificity principle of memory (Surprenant & Neath, 2009). Further, depleted attentional resources at encoding cannot entirely explain older adults' associative memory specificity deficits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of divided attention at encoding and at retrieval on multidimensional source memory.

Dividing attention (DA) between a memory task and a secondary task results in deficits in memory performance across a wide array of memory tasks, but these effects are larger when DA occurs at encoding than at retrieval. Although some research suggests the effects of DA are equal for item and associative memory, thereby suggesting that DA disrupts all components of an episode to the same extent, there have been relatively few studies directly examining the effects of DA on multiple features of the same episode. In addition, no studies have examined how DA may affect the stochastic dependency between multiple source dimensions of a given episode, which is central to theories of source memory, and episodic memory in general. Thus, in two experiments, we used a multidimensional source memory task-examining memory for items and multiple source features-and separately investigated how DA at encoding or at retrieval affects item memory, source memory, and joint source retrieval. DA was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 1 and at retrieval in Experiment 2. Whereas DA at encoding disrupted item memory, as well as source memory and source-source binding, though to a lesser extent, DA at retrieval did not affect any of these outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of levels of binding and the role of attention in encoding and retrieval of bounded episodic representations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Adult age differences in working memory capacity: Spared central storage but deficits in ability to maximize peripheral storage.

For the first time, we quantify capacities of working memory in young and older adults in a dual-task situation, addressing whether older adults have diminished central or peripheral capacity in working memory. Across 2 experiments, 63 young and 63 old adult participants studied visual arrays of colored squares and sequences of unfamiliar tones in quick succession and were instructed to attend to one or both modalities. Memory was assessed with a single-probe change-detection task. We used a recently developed capacity-estimate model to partition participants' overall working memory capacity into 3 components: a peripheral component dedicated to visual information regardless of attention instruction; a peripheral component similarly dedicated to auditory information; and a central component allocated to either modality, or shared between both, depending on attention instruction. Capacity estimates of the peripheral components were consistently smaller in the older adults than in the young adults, but the central component was stable across both age groups. We contend that older adults are impaired in their ability to strategically encode information in ways that younger adults use to increase peripheral storage, a kind of storage that is immune to loss through bimodal attention costs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Specificity Principle of Memory: Evidence From Aging and Associative Memory.

The ability to remember associations among components of an event, which is central to episodic memory, declines with normal aging. In accord with the specificity principle of memory, these declines may occur because associative memory requires retrieval of specific information. Guided by this principle, we endeavored to determine whether ubiquitous age-related deficits in associative memory are restricted to specific representations or extend to the gist of associations. Young and older adults (30 each in Experiment 1, 40 each in Experiment 2) studied face-scene pairs and then performed associative-recognition tests following variable delays. Whereas both young and older adults could retrieve the gist of associations, older adults were impaired in their ability to retrieve more specific representations. Our results also show that associations can be retrieved from multiple levels of specificity, suggesting that episodic memory might be accessed on a continuum of specificity.

Age-related differences in recall and recognition: a meta-analysis.

Relative to younger adults, older adults tend to perform more poorly on tests of both free recall and item recognition memory. The age difference in performance is typically larger for recall tasks relative to those involving recognition. However, there have been reports of comparable age-related differences in free recall and item recognition performance. Further, a differential performance cost does not necessarily mean that processes involved in recall are specifically affected by age. Here we present a meta-analysis of 36 articles reporting 89 direct comparisons of free recall and item recognition in younger and older groups of participants. Standardized effect sizes reveal that age differences are larger for recall tasks (Hedges' g = 0.89, 95% confidence intervals [0.75, 1.03]) than for recognition tasks (0.54, [0.37, 0.72]). Further, Brinley analyses of the data suggest that distinct functions are needed to relate younger and older performance for the two tasks. These functions differ in intercept pointing to a disproportionate age difference in recall relative to recognition. This is in line with theories of memory and aging which posit specific deficits in processes related to search and retrieval from memory.

Basic need satisfaction in the parental relationship offsets millennials' worries about the transition to college.

Students' worries about transitioning to college are correlated with long-term reduced psychological well-being, so we investigated how psychological need satisfaction might mitigate millennials' worries about college. As parents can support or undermine their children's basic needs, we also examined the influence of autonomy-supportive and helicopter parenting during the transition. Additionally, we compared these outcomes between first- and continuing-generation students. Incoming college students (N = 355) completed measures of parental relationship need satisfaction, parental involvement, worries about college, and family achievement guilt. Higher need satisfaction in the parental relationship was associated with reduced worries and feelings of achievement guilt for both first- and continuing-generation students. Autonomy-supportive parenting moderated the relationship between autonomy and millennials' worries about college. Helicopter parenting did not moderate any of the relationships examined in this study but was positively associated with students' transition worries and achievement guilt. We discuss these findings in the context of self-determination theory.