1. Episodic retrieval of visually rich items and associations in young and older adults: Evidence from ERPs
Kalina Nennstiel & Siri-Maria Kamp
Neurocognitive Psychology - Trier University
Introduction
Dual process theory of recognition memory
Recollection-based retrieval declines more strongly during aging than familiarity-based retrieval (Koen & Yonelinas, 2013).
Familiarity (context-free, relatively automatic) vs. recollection (retrieval of context and other details from encoding, resource-demanding)
Age effects of the ERP-correlates of recollection and familiarity are generally consistent with this: Stronger age-related reduction of the left-parietal old/new effect than the mid-frontal effect (Friedman, 2013). However, prior results are inconsistent.
Item information can be retrieved by familiarity or recollection (or a mixture of both), while recollection is necessary to retrieve associations (Yonelinas, 2002).
ERP correlates: Familiarity-based retrieval: Early mid-frontal ERP old/new effect; Recollection: left-parietal ERP old/new effect (Rugg & Curran, 2007)
ERP correlates of recollection and familiarity have rarely been studied within subjects in separate item and associative memory tasks
Age differences in item vs. associative memory and retrieval modes
Goals of the present analysis
Older adults have stronger difficulties with associative memory than item memory (Old & Naveh-Benjamin, 2008).
More evidence on age effects on mid-frontal and parietal old/new effects
Is recollection (the left parietal old/new effect) equally strongly affected by aging in an item memory task vs. an associative memory task?
Methods
Results
Old
Young
Figure 1: Recognition performance
Participants (1st wave of the AnFAnG-study at Trier University)
30 young adults (M=24,7)
48 healthy older adults (M=70,5)
Behavioral results (Figure 1)
Young adults performed better than elderly in both episodic memory tasks
Both age groups performed better in the item than in the association task
Unexpectedly, no Age * Task type interaction
No replication of the age-related associative deficit
I. Item and Associative Encoding Tasks
Item Task
time (ms) -8
500
1000
1500 2 4 6 8 -6 -4 -2
amplitude (µV)
frontal electrode (Fz)
left parietal electrode (P3)
Figure 2: ERPs during item recognition
O Item New
O Item Old
Y Item New
Y Item Old
Associative Task
II. Distractor Task (Counting Span)
???
ERPs during the item recognition test (Figure 2)
Young adults
Early mid-frontal old/new effect ( ms)
Left-parietal old/new effect ( ms)
Older adults
Delayed but intact mid-frontal effect ( ms)
No left-parietal old/new effect
500
1000
1500 2 4 6 8 -8 -6 -4 -2
amplitude (µV)
time (ms)
frontal electrode (Fz)
left parietal electrode (P3)
Figure 3: ERPs during associative recognition
O Assoc New
O Assoc Old
Y Assoc New
Y Assoc Old
III. Item and Associative Recognition Tasks
Item Task
amplitude (µV)
Associative Task
ERPs during the associative recognition test (Figure 3)
Young adults
Only a left-parietal old/new effect ( ms)
Older adults
No old/new effects
Summary & Discussion
No evidence for a selective age-related associative deficit in the present design!
Familiarity (mid-frontal old/new effect) in item-tasks is relatively intact in older adults.
Influence of task difficulty?
Floor effects in the associative memory test?
Age-related decline in recollection (left parietal ERP old/new effect)
Our results are consistent with the idea that recollection, but not familiarity, supports associative memory, while item memory is supported by both processes.
This was observed for both an item test using visually rich stimuli and an inter-item associative test.
However, somewhat smaller left parietal old/new effect in the associative test in young adults
A general age-related recollection deficit appears to apply to both item and associative memory.
Related to overall low performance in the associative test?
References
Friedman, D. (2013). The cognitive aging of episodic memory: a view based on the event-related brain potential. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 7, 111.
Rugg, M. D., & Curran, T. (2007). Event-related potentials and recognition memory. Trends in cognitive sciences, 11(6),
Koen, J. & Yonelinas ,A. (2013). Recollection and familiarity declines in healthy aging, a MCI, and AD. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 25 (Suppl.), 197.
Yonelinas, A. P. (2002). The nature of recollection and familiarity: A review of 30 years of research. Journal of memory and language, 46(3),
Old, S. R., & Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2008). Differential effects of age on item and associative measures of memory: a meta-analysis. Psychology and aging, 23(1), 104.