Memory Age-based Stereotype Threat: Role of Locus of Control and Anxiety.

Background: Age-related stereotype threat impacts episodic memory performance. This study compared the predictors of memory performance in older adults with and without exposure to age-related stereotype threat, hypothesizing that activating the stereotype threat modulates the relative weight of metamemory predictors of memory performance.Methods: Participants were 80 older adults (aged 60-84 years) divided into two groups, one with stereotype threat activation and one without; both groups performed an episodic memory task. To activate the stereotype threat, the memory component of the task was emphasized in the instruction given to the threatened group. Both groups also completed two scales of the MIA questionnaire (locus of control and anxiety) to identify potential predictors of memory performance.Results: Results indicated that the non-threatened group performed better than the threatened group on the episodic memory task. They also indicated that factors predicting episodic memory performance varied according to the group. In the non-threatened group, both control and anxiety were involved in memory performance and interacted whereas in the threatened group only anxiety was involved.Conclusion: This study confirms that aging stereotype threat impairs episodic memory performance; it also suggests that stereotype threat disrupts mechanisms underlying memory performance abolishing the role of control over memory regardless of the level of anxiety.

Central auditory processing in aging: the dichotic listening paradigm.

OBJECTIVE: Aging is associated with cognitive changing. Central auditory processing dysfunction may explain some understanding difficulties in elderly. It may be evaluated with the dichotic listening (DL) test, a widely-used experimental paradigm for studying inter-hemispheric interactions and attentional processes. This study examines central auditory language processing with a dichotic listening task in right-handed old subjects according to their age. DESIGN: Cross sectional-study. SETTING: memory clinic and geriatric unit. PARTICIPANTS: Adult group (Ad) consisted in 26 subjects (21 women and 5 men) aged 50-69 years and an old adults group (Old-Ad) consisted in 20 subjects (19 women and 1 man) aged 70 to 89 years. MEASUREMENTS: DL consisted in a free-recall word task and a digit forced-attention task (forced-right: FR and forced-left: FL) in order to study central auditory language processing. In addition, we used neuropsychological tests to study executive functions and cognitive control, sustained by the prefrontal cortex. RESULTS: In the free recall condition, we confirmed the classic right ear advantage (REA) in both groups, particularly in older subjects. In the forced condition, we observed an ear advantage with a change in ear asymmetry as a consequence of instruction: REA in FR and a left-ear advantage (LEA) in FL. We compared contaminations by the contra-lateral inattentive ear: reports of the left ear (LE) in the FR condition and reports of the right ear (RE) in the FL condition. Contaminations by the RE in the FL condition were more pronounced in Old-Ad suggesting difficulties in competition between the natural tendency for the RE and the instruction. In the Old-Ad group, the correlation between the RE score in FL and TMT B-A/A suggests an impairment in mental flexibility. CONCLUSION: DL may be helpful to study central auditory dysfunction in aging. Our results suggest difficulties in attentional control and executive functions. Central auditory dysfunction should be evaluated in elderly because it potentially contributes to difficulty of hearing in noisy environment with consequences in the rehabilitation of presbyacousic subjects. More studies are needed to investigate the predictive value of DL as a marker of cognitive decline, particularly executive functions.

[Episodic memory, frontal functioning, and aging]. / Mémoire épisodique, fonctionnement frontal et vieillissement.

Episodic memory is commonly defined as the kind of memory that renders possible conscious recollection of personal happenings and events from one's personal past. Although it is classically assumed that episodic memory is subserved by a distinct neurocognitive system including mediotemporal cortex and hippocampus, recent evidence also supports the idea of a close relationship between episodic memory and frontal cortex. This view assumes that the frontal cortex plays a critical supervisory role in empowering encoding and retrieval episodic memory operations. In recent years, this view had significantly influenced research in the field of normal memory aging. Indeed, different data have highlighted that age-related cognitive differences, most particularly age-related memory differences, might be explained by the decline of executive-frontal functioning that accompanies aging. In this article, we provide studies on aging and episodic memory that, in support of the executive hypothesis of aging episodic memory, have provided evidence that age-related differences in strategies implemented at encoding and retrieval in this type of memory are mediated by the executive functioning difficulties of older adults.

[Metamemory and Parkinson's disease]. / Métamémoire et Maladie de Parkinson.

Metamemory is a multifaceted concept, which deals with the individual's knowledge and control of his or her own memory system. One metacognitive ability that has considerable importance in everyday life is the ability to control his or her own memory. In this study, we have examined whether Parkinson's disease affects the degree to which a person allocate study time. 17 Parkinson subjects and 18 older controls participated in this study. Parkinson subjects and control subjects made a readiness recall task in which subjects monitor themselves the learning procedure, allowing to measure metamemory control (study time by item). Control subjects were found to take more time in study than parkinson subjects. The lists were learned under two condition: a self-paced condition in which subjects could study each word as long as they would and an experimenter-paced condition. The analysis revealed that control subjects recalled more items than parkinson subjects only in the self-paced condition. These results suggested that Parkinson-related differences in the allocation of study time mediate a part of Parkinson-related differences in memory performance.

Aging, episodic memory feeling-of-knowing, and frontal functioning.

Groups of normal old and young adults made episodic memory feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments and took 2 types of episodic memory tests (cued recall and recognition). Neuropsychological tests of executive and memory functions thought to respectively involve the frontal and medial temporal structures were also administered. Age differences were observed on the episodic memory measures and on all neuropsychological tests. Compared with young adults, older adults performed at chance level on FOK accuracy judgments. Partial correlations indicated that a composite measure of frontal functioning and FOK accuracy were closely related. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the composite frontal functioning score accounted for a large proportion of the age-related variance in FOK accuracy. This finding supports the idea that the age-related decline in episodic memory FOK accuracy is mainly the result of executive or frontal limitations associated with aging.

Relation between fluid intelligence and frontal lobe functioning in older adults.

This study reports the relations among normal aging, intelligence, and frontal lobe functioning. Intelligence tasks and frontal lobe functioning tasks were administered to 107 adults from two age groups (25 to 46 years and 70 to 99 years). Intelligence measures were assessed with two crystallized tests (WAIS Vocabulary and Information subtests), one fluid intelligence test (Cattell's Matrices), and one mixed, crystallized and fluid test (WAIS Similarities subtest). Frontal functioning was assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and two tests of verbal fluency. Significant age differences in favor of the young were found on the two intelligence tests with a fluid component and on all measures of frontal lobe functioning. Correlational analyses examining the relationship of intelligence measures to frontal variables indicated that these last measures were significantly correlated with only fluid intelligence tests in the elderly group. The implications for the relations among aging, fluid intelligence, and frontal lobe functioning are discussed.

Dissociation of implicit and explicit memory tests: effect of age and divided attention on category exemplar generation and cued recall.

In this article, we report an experiment that provides further evidence concerning the differences between explicit and implicit measures of memory. The effects of age and divided attention on the implicit conceptual test of category exemplar generation (CEG) were compared with their effects on the explicit test of cued, recall, where the category names served as cues in both tasks. Four age groups (20-35, 40-55, 60-75, and 76-90) were compared. Half of the subjects were also required to carry out a secondary letter-detection task during the learning phase. Cued recall performance was significantly impaired by increased age and imposition of the secondary task. In contrast, the CEG task was unaffected by these two factors. These results suggest that implicit conceptual tasks and explicit memory tasks are mediated by different processes. This conclusion opposes those of previous studies that showed that experimental manipulations (level of processing, generation, organization) influenced these two kinds of memory tests in a similar way.

Aging and encoding in memory: false alarms and decision criteria in a word-pair recognition task.

Employing a false alarm recognition procedure with learning of highly associated word pairs, an experiment was conducted to examine the hypothesis of an age-related deficit in the distinctiveness of encoding. The evolution of the false alarm rate and of the C decision criteria was observed across three age groups, young adults, older adults, and older-older adults. The results show 1) no age differences on C decision criteria, indicating that the increase in FA with age is not related to a subject compensation strategy but is probably due to a failure in memory strength, and 2) that older respondents produced significantly more false alarms to distractors related to target items than the young respondents did but that they did not differ in their false alarm rate for unrelated distractors. This finding is interpreted as supporting the hypothesis of a failure with age to encode target items in a sufficiently elaborate or distinctive fashion. For the older-older respondents the data showed an increase in all false alarms indexes, suggesting that the encoding deficit gets worse in late adulthood.

[Elaboration of an ethogram for the diagnosis of the A Pattern in coronary pathology]. / Elaboration d'un éthogramme pour le diagnostic du Pattern "A" en pathologie coronaire.

In order to develop a technique which allows the detection of Pattern A (PA) we present in this paper a series of steps for constructing an observation gril (ethogram) which allows for the quantification of behavior in situation of structured interview. The behavioral units making up the final ethogram are derived from inter-item correlations taken from a population of 48 subjects who had suffered heart attacks. The observations on this population permit an inclusion score in the PA. These observations also confirm that the PA present a risk factor which is independent of classical risk factors. A significative positive correlation with work stress has been found showing, in accordance with the view of Friedman and Rosenman that the PA corresponds to a particular behavioral pattern which is dependent on the work environment.

[Elaboration of an ethogram for the diagnosis of Pattern "A"]. / Elaboration d'un éthogramme pour le diagnostic du Pattern "A".

In order to develop a technique which allows the detection of Pattern A (P.A.) we present in this paper a series of steps for constructing an observation grill (ethogram) which allows for the quantification of behavior in situation of structured interview. The behavioral units making up the final ethogram are derived from inter-item correlations taken from a population of 48 subjects who had suffered heart attacks. The observations on this population permit an inclusion score in the P.A. These observations also confirm that the P.A. present a risk factor which is independent of classical risk factors. A significative positive correlation with work stress has been found showing, in accordance with the view of Friedman and Rosenman that the P.A. corresponds to a particular behavioral pattern which is dependent on the work environment.

Colony recognition of larvae by young workers of Cataglyphis Cursor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae ).

In an ant, C. cursor , colony recognition of larvae exists in callow workers 10 days or older, but the discrimination capacities of very young workers has not been investigated. We show that workers less than 24 h old are already able to discriminate homocolonial from alien larvae. This is an additional argument in favour of the existence of a learning period for colony recognition of larvae during the preimaginal life.

Preimaginal learning as a basis of colony-brood recognition in the ant Cataglyphis cursor.

In most circumstances, social insects recognize their nestmates. They can discriminate against alien adults and also against alien larvae. Results presented here indicate that the mechanism of colony-brood recognition is acquired in large part during larval life and persists through the metamorphosis into the adult stage. During the first days after emergence of the adult, a weaker form of learning can also occur. These phenomena are discussed in relation to kinship theory. It appears that kin recognition is determined not so much by genetic relatedness as by spatial proximity of the individuals during the early stages of life.