Do serial order working memory abilities decline in healthy aging?

(1)

Do serial order working memory abilities

decline in healthy aging?

The preservation of the ability to maintain information over the short-term in healthy

aging remains a controversial question. Here we focused on one of the most challenging

aspects of verbal working memory, the ability to not only maintain verbal events (like

words and nonwords) but to also maintain their serial order of occurrence.

R E F E R E N C E S

Grégoire Coline

1

_{, Fay Séverine}

2

_{& Majerus Steve}

1

1: Psychology and Cognitive Neurosciences Research Unit, University of Liège, Belgium.

2: Cognition and Learning Research Unit, Team “Aging and Memory”, UMR-CNRS 7295, University of Tours, France.

 GREGOIRE Coline : coline.gregoire@doct.uliege.be

METHOD

RESULTS

ORDER

score

ITEM

score

Anecdotal evidence in favor of a group effect

BF

₁₀

= 2,9 for words; BF

₁₀

= 0,5 for nonwords

Absence of group effect

BF

₀₁

= 3,25 for words; BF

₀₁

= 1,26 for nonwords

cave fou

r

bac rire

nal dour bamme rize

daze zance Lenght 1 Lenght 2 until Length 6

…

nonwords words nonwords

Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4

gaz lance caisse date kèr dabe vite

rêve _rougevol zit rèze vonne rouck words

…

I M M E D I A T E S E R I A L R E C A L L T A S K

P A R T I C I P A N T S

Education Vocabulary (Mill-Hill) Anxiety (HADS) Depression (HADS) Young adults 13,83 23,57 6,37 3,5 Older adults 12,83 26,47 5,26 4,63 Bayesian t-test; BF_{01 =} 1,92 0,57 1,6 1,12

I T E M s c o r e

= percentage of items recalled independently of serial position Matching variables:

30 Young adults 30 Older adults

O R D E R s c o r e

= percentage of items recalled in correct serial position divided by the total amount of items recalled

Attout, L., Kaa, M.-A. V. der, George, M., & Majerus, S. (2012). Dissociating short-term memory and language impairment: The importance of item and serial order information. Aphasiology, 26(3-4), 355-382. Collette, F., Péters, F., Hogge, M., & Majerus, S. (2007). Mémoire de travail et vieillissement normal. Neuropsychologie de la mémoire de travail.

Maylor, E. A., Vousden, J. I., & Brown, G. D. (1999). Adult age differences in short-term memory for serial order: Data and a model. Psychology and Aging, 14(4), 572.

✓ If there is a reduction of verbal WM abilities in healthy aging, it is

very small and limited to the maintenance of serial order information.

✓ These results may explain the previous inconsistent reports

regarding the preservation of verbal WM in healthy aging (Collette et al., 2007) : difficulties in WM tasks may be dependent on the

requirements for serial order storage of the specific WM tasks administered

✓ Our findings are also in line with other studies suggesting an

age-related reduction in the precision of serial order coding in verbal WM (Maylor et al., 1999)