Biomedical subjects

J L Earles

Publications and source records attributed to J L Earles.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Influences of age, performance, and item relatedness on verbatim and gist recall of verb-noun pairs.

Age differences in adults' memory for performed actions (e.g., wave hand) are sometimes smaller than age differences in memory for nonperformed phrases. In this study, we examined the conditions under which performance reduces age differences in recall. Younger and older adults performed or read verb-noun phrases that were either related (e.g., actions performed in a kitchen) or unrelated. Performance did not reduce age differences in recall of the exact verbs and nouns used to describe an action, but performance did reduce age differences in memory for the gist of related actions. Older adults especially had difficulty recalling the exact verb used to describe the action. These results suggest that older adults may have better memory for actions than is revealed by tests of verbatim recall. They may remember performing the action but not remember the exact words used to describe the action.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Age differences in context integration in memory.

This research examined the role of contextual integration in memories of younger and older adults. In 2 experiments, recall of a target picture to a context picture cue was better when sentences were generated that integrated the picture pair and when the picture pairs were already related to each other. Age differences were smallest when sentences were generated for semantically related pairs. Older adults generated the same type sentences as younger adults, although they generated fewer integrations for unrelated pairs. In a 3rd experiment, younger adults could not differentiate between younger- and older-generated sentences from Experiment 1, and the sentences did not differentially affect recall performance. The results are discussed in terms of age differences in self-initiated processing when using context.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Influences of age and perceived activity difficulty on activity recall.

After they performed each of a series of activities, older and younger adults were asked to rate the difficulty of the activity. Recall of the activities was later tested. Older adults tended to remember those activities they perceived to be less difficult, whereas younger adults tended to remember those activities they perceived to be more difficult. Thus, when more cognitive effort was required to perform an activity, older adults tended to have difficulty later remembering the activity. Difficult activities are hypothesized to tax limited processing resources and induce anxiety in older adults, preventing successful encoding.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Interrelations of age, self-reported health, speed, and memory.

Contributions of self-reported health to adult age differences in perceptual speed and memory were assessed for 301 adults ages 20-90. Participants were asked 4 health status questions, given 3 perceptual speed tests, 2 working memory tests, and 2 memory tests. Self-reported health was found to predict speed better than it predicted memory. Covariance structural equation modeling was used to assess the relations among age, self-reported health, perceptual speed, working memory, and memory. The results support the hypothesis that any effects of self-reported health on age differences in memory are mediated by perceptual speed.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Mediators of long-term memory performance across the life span.

An individual-differences approach was used to examine the component processes that predict episodic long-term memory performance. A total of 301 participants ages 20-90 received a 7-hr cognitive battery across 3 days. Key constructs hypothesized to affect long-term memory function were assessed, including multiple measures of working memory and perceptual speed. Latent-construct, structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship of these measures and age to different types of long-term memory tasks. Speed was a key construct for all 3 types of memory tasks, mediating substantial age-related variance; working memory was a fundamental construct for free and cued recall but not spatial memory. The data suggest that both speed and working memory are fundamental to explaining age-related changes in cognitive aging but that the relative contributions of these constructs vary as a function of the type of memory task.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Adult age differences in recall of performed and nonperformed items.

Memory for performed cognitive activities (e.g., psychometric tests of intelligence), for performed brief actions (e.g., hand wave), and for nonperformed items (e.g., written words) was assessed for 102 older and 101 younger adults. Although enactment improved recall, the beneficial effects of enactment were the same for both age groups. In fact, more than 80% of the age-related variance in memory for performed items was shared with memory for nonperformed items. Working memory and perceptual speed were important to the age differences in memory for both types of items. Performed and nonperformed items showed different serial position effects. However, the correlation between memory for the 2 types of items was high, especially for older adults, suggesting that the 2 types of memory share many common processes.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Interrelations of age, health, and speed.

Latent construct structural equation modeling of the relations among age, self-rated health, and speed was conducted with two samples, each containing 372 adults between 18 and 87 years of age. The major results were confirmed in both samples. Self-rated health, sensory-motor speed, perceptual speed, and reaction time speed all decreased as age increased, but health only partially mediated the relationship between age and speed. There were direct effects of age on all types of speed in addition to the indirect effects of age on speed through the self-rated health measures, and there were direct effects of age on perceptual speed in addition to the indirect effects through sensory-motor speed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Adult age differences in long-term memory for performed activities.

Participants in two studies conducted by Salthouse (in press) were called 2 to 182 days after participation and asked to describe the activities that they had performed in the previous study. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the prediction of activity recall from age, speed, and retention interval. Overall, age was associated with 20% of the variance in activity recall, and retention interval was associated with 19%, but there was no significant interaction of age and retention interval. When perceptual speed was entered into the regression equation before age, the age-related variance was reduced by 70%. A small, but statistically significant, amount of age-related variance in activity memory remained after controlling for speed and retention interval.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Adult age differences in the effects of environmental context on memory performance.

In two experiments, we examined the hypotheses that the memory performance of older adults is more dependent than that of younger adults on environmental context, and that the integration of to-be-remembered items with contextual cues benefits older more than younger adults. When younger and older adults were shown simple line drawings that were not explicitly associated with the external environment, there was no effect on recall of a change in environmental context for either age group. However, when subjects heard sentences that connected the simple drawings with environmental cues, an environmental context effect was observed. Both age groups recalled more in the same than in a different environment, and the magnitude of the facilitation effect of the familiar context was equal for younger and older adults. However, the integration of the to-be-remembered items with the context facilitated recall regardless of the context present at retrieval, and this effect was larger for younger adults, suggesting that the younger adults were better able to use the provided integrations than were the older adults.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Processing speed and adult age differences in activity memory.

Immediate and delayed recall of performed cognitive activities was examined in 136 adults aged 20 to 85. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the association between perceptual speed and age differences in activity memory. The age-related variance in delayed activity recall was reduced by 52% by the statistical control of perceptual speed, and the age-related variance in immediate activity recall was reduced by 91%. Thus, adult age differences in delayed and immediate activity memory were found to be associated with limitations in perceptual speed. The cognitive effort that is required to perform cognitive activities may tax the processing resources of older adults, prohibiting successful encoding of the activities.

Adult↗