Aging increases episodic memory interference on skill consolidation despite episodic memory decline

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Project Citation:

Freedberg, Michael. Aging increases episodic memory interference on skill consolidation despite episodic memory decline. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-08-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/E208584V1

Project Description

Summary: Episodic memories are verbalizable and autobiographical, whereas procedural memories are expressed as skills and habits. Brown and Robertson (2007, J Neurosci) showed that episodic memory acquisition disrupts the wakeful consolidation of procedural memories in younger adults. Older adults experience age-related episodic memory decline, but relatively spared procedural memory, suggesting that episodic memory interference on procedural skill consolidation may be weaker in older adults. Alternatively, disrupted episodic memory processes may increase the effort or resources needed to encode those memories in older adults, causing greater interference in procedural memory consolidation. To adjudicate these possibilities, we recruited forty cognitively unimpaired younger (n = 20; 18-40 years old) and older (n = 20; ≥ 55 years old) adults to investigate how episodic memory interference on procedural memory consolidation compares between age groups. Skill performance was recorded using the serial reaction time task (SRTT) in the morning and 6-12 hours later. Immediately after the morning SRTT session, half of the participants in each age group acquired episodic memories, while the other half performed a control task. Contrary to Brown and Robertson (2007, J Neurosci), we found weak evidence of memory interference in younger adults. However, memory interference was evident in older adults and stronger than in younger adults. Thus, although episodic memory is weaker in older adults, our results show that episodic memory interference is stronger in older adults. These findings suggest that episodic memory does not just decline with age but can problematically influence procedural memory, possibly through compensatory processes.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Memory; episodic; procedural; aging; interference

Geographic Coverage: Austin, Texas

Time Period(s): 1/1/2023 – 6/1/2024

Collection Date(s): 1/1/2023 – 6/1/2024

Universe: Cognitively unimpaired younger (18-40 years) and older (≤55 years) adults.

Data Type(s): experimental data

Methodology

Response Rate: Of the forty enrolled and tested, none were excluded.

Sampling: We recruited 40 participants, consisting of 20 cognitively unimpaired young adults (22.9±3.28 years old) and 20 healthy older adults (65.6±6.97 years old) from the greater Austin, Texas area.

Data Source: Data were collected electronically from participants performing a computer task.

Collection Mode(s): cognitive assessment test

Scales: The mini-mental state exam (MMSE; Folstein et al, 1975, Journal of Psychiatry Research) was used to screen participants for the possible presence of dementia. We used the everyday memory questionnaire to measure participants' judgments of their everyday memory failures (EMQ; Sunderland et al., 1983; Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior). The main behavioral task was based on the original study by Brown and Robertson (2007; The Journal of Neuroscience).

Weights: The primary variable (procedural memory consolidation) was measured twice per participant. All participants' data were weighted equally in our analysis.

Unit(s) of Observation: Number of items remembered

Geographic Unit: Accuracy

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-08-21]

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