Toward an Understanding of Age-Related Learning in Memory Search

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur D. Fisk ◽  
Brian P. Cooper ◽  
Christopher Hertzog
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Brian P. Cooper ◽  
Arthur D. Fisk

Understanding age-related similarities and differences in development of cognitive skill is important as it can inform theories of cognitive aging as well as serve the pragmatic value of informing those individuals who are developing age-related interventions for numerous activities of daily living. We investigated both the performance and learning of skilled memory search, a task that has shown age-related similarity in performance if sufficient consistent practice is provided, to determine if training guidelines for this class of processing activities is applicable to both young and old adults. Old and young adults received memory search training, and then the participants were transferred to untrained exemplars of the trained memory set categories. The results suggest that both young and old adults are, at least to some extent, learning at the semantic-category level. This study provides additional evidence that training guidelines derived from an automatic and controlled processing framework can be applied to an older adult population in tasks which have memory search components.


2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 2396-2404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas T. Hills ◽  
Rui Mata ◽  
Andreas Wilke ◽  
Gregory R. Samanez-Larkin

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur D. Fisk ◽  
Brian P. Cooper ◽  
Christopher Hertzog ◽  
Marjo M. Anderson-Garlach ◽  
Mark D. Lee
Keyword(s):  

1992 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-150
Author(s):  
Brian P. Cooper ◽  
Mark D. Lee ◽  
Robert E. Goska ◽  
Marjo M. Anderson ◽  
Paul E. Gay ◽  
...  

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the mechanisms which underlie the learning in consistently mapped (CM) memory search. In Experiment 1, old and young adults were trained in both CM and variably mapped (VM) category search. The training results replicate previous findings by Fisk and Rogers (1991). Even though older adults are initially at a disadvantage relative to young adults, the comparison times of young and old adults are near zero after CM training. For VM, older adults remain at a disadvantage relative to younger adults, even after extensive training. A full reversal manipulation was implemented in Experiment 2 to investigate the learning in memory search. Initially, the young subjects were less affected by the full reversal condition compared to the performance of the older adults. However, older subjects quickly recovered and both young and old were performing at trained CM levels within 60 trials of additional practice. These results suggest: (a) attention is not being trained in CM memory search; (b) automatic category activation does not contribute much, if at all, to the performance improvement in memory search; and (c) age-invariant learning mechanisms account for performance improvement in CM memory search.


Author(s):  
Iris Wiegand ◽  
Erica Westenberg ◽  
Jeremy M. Wolfe

AbstractSequence learning effects in simple perceptual and motor tasks are largely unaffected by normal aging. However, less is known about sequence learning in more complex cognitive tasks that involve attention and memory processes and how this changes with age. In this study, we examined whether incidental and intentional sequence learning would facilitate hybrid visual and memory search in younger and older adults. Observers performed a hybrid search task, in which they memorized four or 16 target objects and searched for any of those target objects in displays with four or 16 objects. The memorized targets appeared either in a repeating sequential order or in random order. In the first experiment, observers were not told about the sequence before the experiment. Only a subset of younger adults and none of the older adults incidentally learned the sequence. The “learners” acquired explicit knowledge about the sequence and searched faster in the sequence compared to random condition. In the second experiment, observers were told about the sequence before the search task. Both younger and older adults searched faster in sequence blocks than random blocks. Older adults, however, showed this sequence-learning effect only in blocks with smaller target sets. Our findings indicate that explicit sequence knowledge can facilitate hybrid search, as it allows observers to predict the next target and restrict their visual and memory search. In older age, the sequence-learning effect is constrained by load, presumably due to age-related decline in executive functions.


Author(s):  
W. Krebs ◽  
I. Krebs

Various inclusion bodies occur in vertebrate retinal photoreceptor cells. Most of them are membrane bound and associated with phagocytosis or they are age related residual bodies. We found an additional inclusion body in foveal cone cells of the baboon (Papio anubis) retina.The eyes of a 15 year old baboon were fixed by immersion in cacodylate buffered glutaraldehyde (2%)/formaldehyde (2%) as described in detail elsewhere . Pieces of retina from various locations, including the fovea, were embedded in epoxy resin such that radial or tangential sections could be cut.Spindle shaped inclusion bodies were found in the cytoplasm of only foveal cones. They were abundant in the inner segments, close to the external limiting membrane (Fig. 1). But they also occurred in the outer fibers, the perikarya, and the inner fibers (Henle’s fibers) of the cone cells. The bodies were between 0.5 and 2 μm long. Their central diameter was 0.2 to 0. 3 μm. They always were oriented parallel to the long axis of the cone cells. In longitudinal sections (Figs. 2,3) they seemed to have a fibrous skeleton that, in cross sections, turned out to consist of plate-like (Fig.4) and tubular profiles (Fig. 5).


2013 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 119-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Carroll ◽  
Graeme Hewitt ◽  
Viktor I. Korolchuk

Autophagy is a process of lysosome-dependent intracellular degradation that participates in the liberation of resources including amino acids and energy to maintain homoeostasis. Autophagy is particularly important in stress conditions such as nutrient starvation and any perturbation in the ability of the cell to activate or regulate autophagy can lead to cellular dysfunction and disease. An area of intense research interest is the role and indeed the fate of autophagy during cellular and organismal ageing. Age-related disorders are associated with increased cellular stress and assault including DNA damage, reduced energy availability, protein aggregation and accumulation of damaged organelles. A reduction in autophagy activity has been observed in a number of ageing models and its up-regulation via pharmacological and genetic methods can alleviate age-related pathologies. In particular, autophagy induction can enhance clearance of toxic intracellular waste associated with neurodegenerative diseases and has been comprehensively demonstrated to improve lifespan in yeast, worms, flies, rodents and primates. The situation, however, has been complicated by the identification that autophagy up-regulation can also occur during ageing. Indeed, in certain situations, reduced autophagosome induction may actually provide benefits to ageing cells. Future studies will undoubtedly improve our understanding of exactly how the multiple signals that are integrated to control appropriate autophagy activity change during ageing, what affect this has on autophagy and to what extent autophagy contributes to age-associated pathologies. Identification of mechanisms that influence a healthy lifespan is of economic, medical and social importance in our ‘ageing’ world.


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