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

自愿遗忘是通过对记忆内容的自上而下控制来实现的。与年龄相关的认知控制下降可能会影响自愿遗忘。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性的直接测量和保留的两个间接测量：主动干扰和语义扭曲，检查了遗忘功效的年龄差异。在老年人中，长期记忆中的定向遗忘效应几乎不存在。此外，与年轻人相比，老年人在工作记忆中识别出更少的需要记住的和更多的被遗忘的项目。然而，遗忘功效的间接测量表明，老年人有一些控制工作记忆内容的能力：年轻和年长的参与者都表现出对工作记忆中的待遗忘单词（实验 1）的主动干扰减少，并减少了对待遗忘列表关联（实验 2）的语义错误。遗忘功效的间接记忆测量可以更全面地了解老年人的幸免和受损控制过程。