ABSTRACT

The ability to generate associative representations and to retrieve them from long-term episodic memory generally declines in healthy aging. However, it is unclear whether healthy aging has differential effects on associative memory for identity, spatial configuration, and temporal order relationships. In the current study, we assessed how healthy aging impacts on associative memory for identity, spatial, or temporal relationships between pairs of visual objects via discrimination of intact and rearranged pairs. Accuracy and response time performance of healthy older adults (aged 65–80) were compared with young adults (ages 19–30). Age-related declines in associative memory were observed equally for all types of associations, but these declines differed by associative status: aging most strongly affected ability to discriminate rearranged pairs. These results suggest that associative memory for identity, spatial, and temporal relationships are equally affected by healthy aging, and may all depend on a shared set of basic associative mechanisms.

摘要

产生联想表征并从长期情景记忆中检索它们的能力通常会在健康老龄化时下降。然而，目前尚不清楚健康老龄化是否对身份、空间配置和时间顺序关系的联想记忆有不同的影响。在目前的研究中，我们评估了健康衰老如何通过区分完整和重新排列的对来评估视觉对象对之间的身份、空间或时间关系的联想记忆。将健康老年人（65-80 岁）与年轻人（19-30 岁）的准确性和响应时间表现进行了比较。对于所有类型的关联，同样观察到与年龄相关的联想记忆下降，但这些下降因联想状态而异：衰老对区分重排配对的能力影响最大。