ABSTRACT

Research investigating statistical learning, the process of tracking regularities in the environment, in older adults has been limited; with existing studies suggesting there are age-related declines. We aim to further understand older adults’ statistical learning abilities using a cross-situational statistical learning paradigm in which learners map novel words to novel objects. In Experiment 1, we manipulated task difficulty and found an overall age deficit but no interaction between age and difficulty. In Experiment 2, after extended practice with a first set of object-word mappings, learners could remap a subset of previously learned words to novel objects. Based on hyper-binding, older adults might be more willing to remap previously learned words to novel objects. However, despite overall poorer learning, older adults were actually less likely to remap. Even though older adults may have an associative memory deficit, learned associations are not more weakly bound for older relative to younger adults.

摘要

调查统计学习，跟踪环境规律的过程，在老年人中的研究受到限制；现有研究表明存在与年龄相关的下降。我们的目标是使用跨情境统计学习范式进一步了解老年人的统计学习能力，其中学习者将新词映射到新对象。在实验 1 中，我们操纵了任务难度，发现整体年龄不足，但年龄和难度之间没有交互作用。在实验 2 中，在使用第一组对象-词映射进行扩展练习后，学习者可以将先前学习的词的子集重新映射到新对象。基于超绑定，老年人可能更愿意将以前学过的单词重新映射到新物体上。然而，尽管整体学习较差，老年人实际上不太可能重新映射。尽管老年人可能有联想记忆缺陷，但与年轻人相比，老年人对学习联想的约束并不弱。