Skip to main content
Home Whitman College Penrose Library | Arminda Collections

Main menu

  • Home
  • Browse Collections
  • About
  • Login
  1. Home
  2. Honors Theses
  3. Age related associative memory performance under divided attention
Title

Age related associative memory performance under divided attention

    Item Description
    Limited Access
    The author(s) chose to restrict access to this thesis to current Whitman students, faculty, and staff. Please log in to view it.
    Linked Agent
    Creator (cre): Matson, Theresa E.
    Creator (cre): Castellanos, Malea
    Advisor (adv): Prull, Matthew
    Department (dpt): Whitman College. Psychology Department
    Date
    May 8, 2012
    Graduation Year
    2012
    Abstract

    This study compared the effects of aging and divided attention on recognition of new associations. We asked whether young adults tested under divided attention conditions at retrieval produced results that mimic normal patterns of memory performance in older adults. We tested participants under full attention and divided attention in two study-test blocks. At study, participants were presented with 66 word pairs with instructions to remember the specific pairings. At test, participants judged whether word pairs were either identical to the previously studied word pairs, rearranged or new. During the divided attention test block, the participants judged numbers while simultaneously deciding whether they had previously encountered the word pairs. During the full attention test block, word pairs and numbers were presented but participants were instructed to ignore the numbers. We found recollection to be the same for both young adults in the divided attention condition and older adults in the full attention condition, suggesting that the ability to remember associative information is impeded by divided attention in young adults to the same degree as it is impeded in older adults under full attention. During divided attention, young adults relied more heavily on familiarity, which mimics age-related memory for associations. However, our analyses also showed that divided attention at retrieval in young adults does not completely mimic the associative deficit seen in older adults. Nevertheless, these findings imply that a recollection deficit is an underlying factor in older adults' association deficit.

    Subject
    Semantic memory
    Episodic memory
    Cognitive aging
    Young adults
    Older people
    Distraction (Psychology) -- Divided attention
    Memory -- Memory
    Short term -- Working memory -- Immediate recall
    Short-term memory
    Social sciences
    Walla Walla (Wash.)
    Attention Aging
    Academic theses
    Whitman College 2012 -- Dissertation collection -- Psychology Department
    Geographic Subject
    United States
    Washington (State)
    Walla Walla (Wash.)
    Genre
    Theses
    Extent
    54 pages
    Permanent URL
    http://works.whitman.edu/1138
    Rights
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
    Contact Us

    If you have questions about permitted uses of this content, please contact the Arminda administrator: http://works.whitman.edu/contact-arminda

    8047268
    Home Whitman College Penrose Library | Arminda Collections

    Footer menu

    • About
    • Author FAQ
    • Contact Us
    • List of Collections
    • Policies
    • Terms of Use