Abstract
Age-related effects in working memory updating were investigated by administering a response time-based task to three adult age groups (young, young-old, and old-old). The task differentiated objects to update; participants were asked to update single memory contents or content-context bindings. The data showed an overall delay of response latencies in the elderly groups (both young-old and old-old), relative to the younger. Specifically, each age group showed longer latencies for content-context binding updating, than single memory content updating. However, an interaction with age was obtained when memory load was manipulated across content-context binding updating conditions. These results were taken as evidence of differences between specific objects of updating and age-related changes in cognition and were discussed with reference to the relevant aging literature.
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We wish to thank Paola Lacchini and Divina Regina for their help in data collection.
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Artuso, C., Cavallini, E., Bottiroli, S. et al. Updating working memory: memory load matters with aging. Aging Clin Exp Res 29, 371–377 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-016-0581-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-016-0581-y