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Effects of aging on task- and stimulus-related attention during a short-term memory task

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Academic year: 2021

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Introduction

Sophie Kurth

1,2

, Catherine Hagelstein

2

, Fabienne Collette

1,2

,

Christine Bastin

1

, Steve Majerus

2

, Eric Salmon

1,3

1 Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Belgium

2 Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Liège, Belgium 3 Memory Clinic, CHU Liège, Belgium

Participants

Results

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & SPONSORS

C

YCLOTRON

R

ESEARCH

C

ENTRE

|

http://www.cyclotron.ulg.ac.be

| Sophie Kurth |

skurth@doct.ulg.ac.be

Materials and procedure

Age-related declines in measures of short-term memory 1, attention 2 and processing speed 3 have often been reported in the literature. However, few studies were interested to explore the effects of age-related differences on task- and stimulus-related attention during different short-term memory load conditions. In young people, a recent study has shown a trade-off between stimulus-related and task-related attention during a verbal short-term memory task 4 confirming previous similar findings in the visual domain 5 . Indeed, in the former study, a slowing effect of a distractor stimulus (DS) was observed on response times but only in low-load memory conditions. By focusing on attention, the question arises whether the same trade-off as in young people is also observed in elderly people, given the age-related changes of many cognitive processes.

The aim of our study was to compare the allocation of attention resources between young and older people during a short-term memory task, varying with memory load.

Objective

Discussion

Correct response rate: Significant main effect of group, F(1,38) = 9.06, p < .01

Young participants performed better and faster than older participants, an observation which is consistent with the often reported age-related declines of span size and processing speed.

The increase in response times and decrease in correct response rates as short term memory load increases are also consistent with previous findings.

Furthermore, the interaction observed between memory load and presence of a distractor stimulus in young participants replicates the results of the recent study of Majerus et al. (2012) showing a slowing effect of the distactor stimulus, but only in low load memory conditions. In young people this confirms the existence of a trade-off between task- and stimulus-related attention in the adapted version of this task.

The absence of such an interaction in the elderly group suggests that task-related attentional resources of elderly people are already fully engaged during the low load memory condition, leaving no resources available for the processing of distractor information. Alternatively, the emphasis on task-related attention could compensate for the sometimes reported age-related loss of efficiency in stimulus-related attention 6. Data

concerning cerebral activations (fMRI) underlying this task are ongoing.

1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400 1450 Load 2 Load 5 ms

Young

Distractor No Distractor P<.01 n.s. 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 Load 2 Load 5 ms

Older

n.s. n.s.

Response times: Significant main effect of group, F(1,38) = 42.07, p < .01. Significant main effect of memory load, F(1,38) = 279.81, p < .01.

Sigificant memory load X distractor stimulus (DS) interaction, F(1,19) = 8.79, p < .01 in young people, n.s. in older people.

Response Times (ms)

Correct response rate (%)

We adapted a task used by the group of Majerus et al. (2012) in young people to an elderly population. 26 Trials are presented in each memory load condition (2 and 5) with and without distractor stimulus (DS) during maintenance.

REFERENCES

1Bopp, K. L., & Verhaeghen, P. (2005). Aging and verbal memory spans: A meta-analyses. The Journals of Gerontology, Series

B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60, 223–233.

2Verhaeghen, P., & Cerella, J. (2002). Aging, executive control, and attention: A review of meta-analyses. Neuroscience and

Biobehavioral Reviews, 26, 849-857.

3Salthouse T.A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 3, 403-428.

4Majerus, S., Attout, L., D’Argembeau, A., Degueldre, C., Fias, W., Maquet, P., Martinez Perez, T., et al. (2012). Attention

supports verbal short-term memory via competition between dorsal and ventral attention networks. Cerebral Cortex, 22, 1086-1097.

5Todd J.J., Fougnie D., & Marois R. (2005). Visual short-term memory load suppresses temporo-parietal junction activity and

induces inattentional blindness. Psychological Science, 16, 965-972.

6Madden, D.J. (2007). Aging and visual attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 70-74.

1

2 DS 2 No DS 5 DS 5 No DS

Young 99 (1.80) 99 (1.71) 97 (4.68) 97 (3.08)

Older 95 (6.59) 97 (5.13) 94 (6.42) 94 (6.42)

This work was supported by the SAO-FRA grant S#12005 and ARC 12/17-01 REST, and the University of Liège.

Participants Young Older

Number 20 20

Age 24.6 (2.39) 72.7 (6.96)

Years of education 15.5 (2.09) 16 (3.11)

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