Effects of Aging on Learning & Retrieval of Proper Names

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Memory for proper names represents an area of age-related change that is of serious concern to older adults. However, research on whether there are greater age-related declines in learning and memory for proper names than for other types of information has yielded mixed results. The proposed research tests for a specific age-related decrement in learning and retrieval of proper names, and also tests predictions of two prominent theories of cognitive aging as applied to proper names: the transmission deficit hypothesis and the inhibitory deficit hypothesis. The goals are to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for age changes in memory for proper names, and to identify conditions that reduce or amplify the effects of age. One proposed project compares age-related changes in learning new proper names with learning other sorts of information about people. Experiments 1-4 manipulate various characteristics of the information to be learned in association with pictured faces to distinguish between transmission deficit and inhibitory deficit accounts. A second project examines the retrieval and production of known proper names. Experiment 5 tests for a specific effect of age on the retrieval of well-known proper names. Experiments 6-7 examine the effects of phonological or semantic distractor names on the retrieval of names of pictured celebrities. Experiments in both projects address theoretical, empirical, and practical questions about memory for proper names and about how name processing changes in old age.