EFFECTS OF CONTEXT ON THE AGING MEMORY

环境对记忆老化的影响

• 批准号: 3117223
• 负责人: DENISE CORTIS PARK
• 金额: $ 16.66万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
• 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 1995-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3117223
• 关键词: age difference; aging; attention; cognition; human old age (65+); human subject; memory; neural information processing; psychological tests; semantics; statistics /biometry; young adult human (21-34)

The broad, long-term objectives of this project are to understand underlying mechanisms that account for differences in how young and elderly adults utilize context present in the memory environment to facilitate or detract from memory for target information. In other words, there are certain elements of one's memory environment which are useful in helping to learn or retrieve information; at the same time there are other forces in the memory environment, such as noise or competing activities, which detract from memory function. To the extent that scientists have a clear understanding of how young and old are differentially affected by context, information can be designed which will be easier for older adults to remember. In addition, such research will provide a more complete theoretical understanding of how human memory functions with advanced age. In the present proposal, a working memory framework is adopted which suggests that older adults differ from young adults in how effectively they integrate contextual information that supports target memory, and inhibit contextual information that detracts from target memory. Thus, age differences in the effectiveness of context are largest when older adults must perform active inhibition or integration operations--both processes associated with working memory function. In the present project, tasks are developed to independently measure subjects' ability to integrate and inhibit context, and then these ability factors are related to experimental -manipulations that are hypothesized to involve integration and inhibition of context. A conceptual taxonomy varying along four dimensions is also proposed for the study of context effects. The dimensions include (a) how strongly related the memory information (target) is to context; (b) whether the context is part of the memory stimulus (target-bound or intra-task) or not (extra-task or environmental context); (c) whether the context supports or detracts from memory; and (d) type of test for context memory--direct or indirect. Most context research on aging has focused on intra-task or target bound context, using direct memory tests. The present research focuses on the other less studied areas of context, including distracting context, environmental context, and effects of context on indirect measures of memory.

该项目的广泛、长期目标是了解 解释年轻和不同性别的差异的潜在机制 老年人利用记忆环境中存在的上下文来 促进或削弱对目标信息的记忆。 在其他方面 换句话说，一个人的记忆环境中有某些元素 有助于学习或检索信息；同时 内存环境中还有其他力量，例如噪声或 竞争性活动，会损害记忆功能。 在某种程度上 科学家们清楚地了解年轻人和老年人的年龄 受上下文影响不同，可以设计信息 老年人会更容易记住。 此外，此类研究 将为人类如何 记忆功能随着年龄的增长而下降。 在本提案中，采用了工作记忆框架，其中 表明老年人与年轻人在有效程度方面有所不同 它们整合了支持目标记忆的上下文信息，并且 抑制有损目标记忆的上下文信息。 因此， 年龄较大时，情境有效性的年龄差异最大 成年人必须执行主动抑制或整合操作——两者 与工作记忆功能相关的过程。 在现在 开发项目、任务来独立衡量受试者的能力 整合和抑制语境，那么这些能力因素就是 与假设涉及的实验操作有关 情境的整合和抑制。 概念分类不同 还提出沿着四个维度来研究情境效应。 这些维度包括 (a) 记忆信息的相关程度 （目标）是针对上下文的； (b) 上下文是否是记忆的一部分 刺激（目标限制或任务内）或无刺激（额外任务或环境） 语境）; (c) 上下文是否支持或削弱记忆；和 (d) 上下文记忆测试类型——直接或间接。 大多数上下文 关于衰老的研究主要集中在任务内或目标绑定上下文， 使用直接内存测试。 目前的研究主要集中在其他方面 研究较少的背景领域，包括分散注意力的背景， 环境背景以及环境对间接测量的影响 记忆。