ABSTRACT

Voluntary forgetting is accomplished via top-down control over memory contents. Age-related declines in cognitive control may compromise voluntary forgetting. Using a working-memory variant of a directed forgetting task, we examined age differences in forgetting efficacy by analyzing direct measures of memory accuracy and two indirect measures of retention: proactive interference and semantic distortions. The directed forgetting effect in long-term memory was virtually absent in older adults. Further, compared to young adults, older adults recognized fewer to-be-remembered and more to-be-forgotten items in working memory. However, indirect measures of forgetting efficacy suggest some spared ability to control working memory contents in older adults: Both young and older adult participants exhibited reduced proactive interference for to-be-forgotten words (Experiment 1) and reduced semantic errors to to-be-forgotten list associates (Experiment 2) in working memory. Indirect memory measures of forgetting efficacy can provide a fuller understanding of spared and impaired control processes in older adults.

摘要

自愿忘记是通过对内存内容的自上而下的控制来完成的。与年龄有关的认知控制下降可能会损害自愿性遗忘。使用定向遗忘任务的工作记忆变体，我们通过分析记忆准确度的直接量度和保留的两种间接量度：主动干预和语义失真，检查了遗忘功效中的年龄差异。老年人几乎没有长期记忆中的直接遗忘作用。此外，与年轻人相比，老年人在工作记忆中认识到的被记住的东西更少，被遗忘的东西更多。然而，间接的功效遗忘措施提示了一些控制老年人工作记忆内容的能力：年轻人和老年人参加者在工作记忆中都表现出减少了对被遗忘单词的主动干扰（实验1）和减少了对被遗忘的列表同伴的语义错误（实验2）。遗忘功效的间接记忆量度可以更全面地了解老年人的控制过程残缺和受损。