AGE DIFFERENCES IN EPISODIC AND SEMANTIC MEMORY

说明(改编自调查员摘要)： 拟议的研究是为了检验年龄差异加工理论。 语义和情景记忆的资源。沙尔豪斯假设 处理速度是一种处理资源。艾伦提出了神经学 用熵衡量的噪声提供了一种更基本的年龄衡量标准 加工资源的差异。具体地说，神经噪音增加 减少认知过程的可用处理资源。这个 本项目的目标是确定为什么年龄差异 在外周和中枢的情景和语义记忆任务中发生 通过检查练习和/或任务类型是否影响处理阶段 这些年龄差异。本提案包含八个实验，这些实验 旨在确定熵(神经噪声的一种衡量标准)， 处理速度和处理精度与年龄差异有关 跨不同处理阶段的处理资源(外围设备与 中央记忆)和任务(情景记忆与语义记忆)。实验1-2将 检查健康的年轻人和老年人的时间精度函数 不同暴露时间的词汇判断和记忆搜索任务。 精度数据将被用来推导出熵值。实验3-4将 用帕什勒的心理不应期范式考察年龄 在处理资源时的差异在于刺激开始时的异步性 在两个任务之间变化(实验3将使用点位置，后跟一个 词汇判断任务：实验4将使用点位置，然后是 词汇判断或记忆搜索任务)。实验4还将检验 练习对加工资源使用的年龄差异的影响 每位参与者参加四次会议。实验5-8由四个实验组成 使用相同刺激(单词或数字)的受试者实验 对于语义和情景记忆任务。实验5-8将排除 刺激混淆了早期关于这一主题的研究。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): The purpose of the proposed research is to test a theory of age differences in processing resources for semantic and episodic memory. Salthouse has hypothesized that processing speed is a processing resource. Allen has proposed that neural noise as measured by entropy provides an even more basic measure of age differences in processing resources. Specifically, increased neural noise reduces the available processing resources for cognitive processes. The goal of the present project is to determine why differential age differences occur for episodic and semantic memory tasks across peripheral and central processing stages by examining whether practice and/or task type affects these age differences. The present proposal contains eight experiments that are designed to determine how entropy (a measure of neural noise), processing speed, and processing accuracy are related to age differences in processing resources across different processing stages (peripheral vs. central) and tasks (episodic vs. semantic memory). Experiments 1-2 will examine the time-accuracy functions of healthy young and older adults on lexical decision and memory search tasks that vary exposure duration. Accuracy data will be used to derive entropy values. Experiments 3-4 will use Pashler's psychological refractory period paradigm to examine age differences in processing resources as the stimulus onset asynchrony is varied between two tasks (Experiment 3 will use dot location followed by a lexical decision task: Experiment 4 will use dot location followed by lexical decision or memory search tasks). Experiment 4 will also examine the effect of practice on age differences in processing resources by using four sessions per participant. Experiments 5-8 will consist of four within subject experiments in which the same stimuli (words or numbers) are used for both semantic and episodic memory tasks. Experiments 5-8 will rule out stimulus confounds that were present in earlier studies on this topic.