CONTEXT EFFECTS ON THE AGING MEMORY

环境对记忆老化的影响

• 批准号: 6029746
• 负责人: DENISE CORTIS PARK
• 金额: $ 26.07万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1985
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1985-09-01 至 2001-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6029746
• 关键词: age difference; aging; attention; cognition; human old age (65+); human subject; human very old age (85+); longitudinal human study; mathematical model; memory; neural information processing; psychological tests; semantics; statistics /biometry; young adult human (21-34)

The present proposal is focused on two major issues: understanding what cognitive mechanisms account for age differences in memory function in older adults and exploring how these mechanisms relate to the ability of older adults to use supportive contextual information to enhance their memory function. We postulate that age-differences in memory function and older adults' ability to use context can be accounted for in terms of a single construct: the construct of mental effort. In the past, this has been viewed as an untestable idea by many memory theorists, as it has proven impossible to independently measure the amount of cognitive resources that a subject brought into a situation and relate this resource to the demands created by the memory task. We believe that recent work in our laboratory and in a few other labs (Salthouse; Lindenberger, Mayr, & Kliegl; Hultsch, Hertzog, & Dixon) have developed good ways to get estimates of cognitive resources. In this research, we propose to use a combination of individual differences methodologies and more traditional experimental procedures to understand the role of mental effort in accounting for patterns of age differences across many types of memory and to explain the effects of memory context on remembering. Specifically, we propose to determine the roles of processing resource (operationalized as the joint effects of perceptual speed and working memory) and existing knowledge structures to explain age differences and cases of age invariance in use of context across different types of memory. We propose to restructure the environmental support view of context and aging within a more precisely specified continuum of mental effort. In Experiments 1 and 2, we use structural equation models to examine how constructs measuring cognitive resource and world knowledge contribute to age differences across many types of memory. In Experiment 3 and 4, we examine how context which is highly effortful to use, may not only fail to support memory in older adults, but may actually be more problematic for them then receiving no contextual support at all. In Experiment 5, we examine age differences in the deliberate recollection and familiarity components of memory. We determine how these components differ in their contribution to memory depending on whether the associative context of the memory task is easy or hard to use for older adults. In Experiments 6 and 7, we look at how effort and task demands affect prospective memory, and in Experiment 8, we examine the role of environmental context as a type of memory support for older adults.

本提案侧重于两个主要问题：了解 认知机制解释了记忆功能的年龄差异 并探索这些机制是如何与 老年人使用支持性背景信息来增强他们的 记忆功能。我们假设记忆功能的年龄差异和 老年人使用上下文的能力可以用以下方面来解释 单一结构：精神努力的结构。在过去，这已经 被许多记忆理论家视为一个无法检验的想法，就像它曾经 事实证明，独立测量认知能力是不可能的 主体带入情景中并与该资源相关的资源 存储任务所产生的需求。我们相信最近在中国的工作 我们的实验室和其他几个实验室(Salhouse；Lindenberger，Mayr，& Kliegl；Hultsch，Hertzog和Dixon)已经开发出了获得 对认知资源的估计。在这项研究中，我们建议使用一个 将个体差异方法与更传统的方法相结合 通过实验程序了解精神努力在 解释了许多类型的记忆和年龄差异的模式 解释记忆语境对记忆的影响。具体来说，我们 建议确定处理资源的角色(操作方式为 知觉速度和工作记忆的共同作用)和存在 解释年龄差异和年龄情况的知识结构 在不同类型的内存中使用上下文的不变性。我们建议 重新构建环境支持观中的背景和老龄化 一种更精确的精神努力的连续统一体。实验1 和2，我们使用结构方程模型来检验如何构建 测量认知资源和世界知识对年龄的贡献 不同类型的记忆之间的差异。在实验3和实验4中，我们检查 使用起来非常费力的上下文不仅可能无法支持 老年人的记忆力，但实际上对他们来说可能更有问题 根本得不到任何上下文支持。在实验5中，我们考察了年龄 在刻意回忆和熟悉成分上的差异 记忆。我们确定这些组件在以下方面的不同之处 内存取决于内存任务的关联上下文是否为 老年人容易使用或难以使用。在实验6和实验7中，我们观察 在实验中，努力和任务需求如何影响前瞻记忆 我们考察了环境背景作为一种记忆类型的作用 对老年人的支持。