Evidence from perceptually based implicit memory tasks demonstrates greater priming from distract... more Evidence from perceptually based implicit memory tasks demonstrates greater priming from distracting information among older compared with younger adults. We examined whether older adults also show greater conceptually based implicit priming from distracting information. We measured priming using a general-knowledge test that was preceded by an incidental-encoding task (a color-naming Stroop task in one experiment and a 1-back task involving pictures with irrelevant words superimposed in a second experiment). Younger adults showed no priming from the distracting information in either experiment, whereas older adults showed reliable priming in both experiments. Thus, unlike young adults, older adults process irrelevant information conceptually and then can use that information to boost their performance on a subsequent task.
We investigated the possibility that implicit memory, like explicit memory, can be disrupted by p... more We investigated the possibility that implicit memory, like explicit memory, can be disrupted by proactive interference. Participants first viewed a list of words, with nontargets in the first half of the list and targets in the second. Nontargets were either similar in structure (e.g., "ANALOGY") or unrelated (e.g., "URGENCY") to the targets (e.g., "ALLERGY"). After several filler tasks, participants completed an implicit fragment-completion test (e.g., "A_L_ _ GY") for the target items. Participants who viewed similar nontargets completed fewer fragments with target items and made more intrusions than did participants who viewed unrelated nontargets. Together with previous findings, these results suggest that similar nontargets can compete with target items to produce interference in implicit memory.
Does interference, a primary source of forgetting in explicit memory, also affect implicit memory... more Does interference, a primary source of forgetting in explicit memory, also affect implicit memory? Several early and highly influential studies have suggested that implicit memory is immune to interference. In contrast, a number of subsequent investigations have reported evidence for interference. As well, amnesic patients, whose performance relies primarily on implicit memory, often show interference effects. A review of methods, materials, and findings suggests that interference occurs on implicit tests when targets and nontargets are similar and so compete as potential responses to the memory cue. Further, there is some evidence that the degree of interference on implicit tasks is affected by the number of competing items and their strength relative to the target. Interference effects in implicit memory seem to parallel those in explicit memory, and the authors consider the implications of this conclusion for theoretical concepts of memory and the brain.
The authors investigated the possibility that working memory span tasks are influenced by interfe... more The authors investigated the possibility that working memory span tasks are influenced by interference and that interference contributes to the correlation between span and other measures. Younger and older adults received the span task either in the standard format or one designed to reduce the impact of interference with no impact on capacity demands. Participants then read and recalled a short prose passage. Reducing the amount of interference in the span task raised span scores, replicating previous results (C. P. May, L. Hasher, & M. J. Kane, 1999). The same interference-reducing manipulations that raised span substantially altered the relation between span and prose recall. These results suggest that span is influenced by interference, that age differences in span may be due to differences in the ability to overcome interference rather than to differences in capacity, and that interference plays an important role in the relation between span and other tasks.
A decision-maker is “irregular” if she would choose B from {A, B, C} but not from {A, B} (for exa... more A decision-maker is “irregular” if she would choose B from {A, B, C} but not from {A, B} (for example, preferring vanilla ice cream in a choice between vanilla and chocolate, but chocolate in a choice among vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). Similarly to previous studies we observed irregular choices by college students faced with hypothetical discount cards for supermarkets. However,
Behavioral evidence suggests that the attention-based ability to regulate distraction varies acro... more Behavioral evidence suggests that the attention-based ability to regulate distraction varies across the day in synchrony with a circadian arousal rhythm that changes across the life span. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we assessed whether neural activity in an attention control network also varies across the day and with behavioral markers. We tested older adults in the morning or afternoon and younger adults tested in the afternoon using a 1-back task with superimposed distractors, followed by an implicit test for the distractors. Behavioral results replicated earlier findings with older adults tested in the morning better able to ignore distraction than those tested in the afternoon. Imaging results showed that time of testing modulates task-related fMRI signals in older adults and that age differences were reduced when older adults are tested at peak times of day. In particular, older adults tested in the morning activated similar cognitive control regions to...
There is a need for rapid and reliable Internet-based screening tools for cognitive assessment in... more There is a need for rapid and reliable Internet-based screening tools for cognitive assessment in middle-aged and older adults. We report the psychometric properties of an on-line tool designed to screen for cognitive deficits that require further investigation. The tool is composed of measures of memory and executive attention processes known to be sensitive to brain changes associated with aging and with cognitive disorders that become more prevalent with age. Measures included a Spatial Working Memory task, Stroop Interference task, Face-Name Association task, and Number-Letter Alternation task. Normative data were collected from 361 healthy adults age 50-79 who scored in the normal range on a standardized measure of general cognitive ability. Participants took the 20-minute on-line test on their home computers, and a subset of 288 participants repeated the test 1 week later. Analyses of the individual tasks indicated adequate internal consistency, construct validity, test-retest...
Age-related memory deficits may result from attending to too much information (inhibition deficit... more Age-related memory deficits may result from attending to too much information (inhibition deficit) and/or storing too little information (binding deficit). The present study evaluated the inhibition and binding accounts by exploiting a situation in which deficits of inhibition should benefit relational memory binding. Older adults directed more viewing toward abrupt onsets in scenes compared with younger adults under instructions to ignore any such onsets, providing evidence for age-related inhibitory deficits, which were ameliorated with additional practice. Subsequently, objects that served as abrupt onsets underwent changes in their spatial relations. Despite successful inhibition of the onsets, eye movements of younger adults were attracted to manipulated objects. In contrast, the eye movements of older adults, who directed more viewing to the late onsets compared with younger adults, were not attracted toward manipulated regions. Similar differences between younger and older adults in viewing of manipulated regions were observed under free viewing conditions. These findings provide evidence for concurrent inhibition and binding deficits in older adults and demonstrate that age-related declines in inhibitory processing do not lead to enhanced relational memory for extraneous information.
Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger... more Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger adults. Elsewhere we have argued that many age-related changes in cognitive function are rooted in an impaired ability to inhibit irrelevant information and inappropriate responses. In this chapter we review evidence that as a direct result of impaired inhibitory processes, older adults tend to be highly
Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger... more Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger adults. Elsewhere we have argued that many age-related changes in cognitive function are rooted in an impaired ability to inhibit irrelevant information and inappropriate responses. In this chapter we review evidence that as a direct result of impaired inhibitory processes, older adults tend to be highly
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 2005
Previous work showed that older adults' choice performance can be wiser than that of younger adul... more Previous work showed that older adults' choice performance can be wiser than that of younger adults . We contrasted two possible interpretations: a general expertise/wisdom view that suggests that older adults are generally more skilled at making decisions than younger adults and a domain-specific expertise view that suggests that older adults are more skilled decision makers only in domains in which they have greater knowledge. These hypotheses were contrasted using attraction effect tasks in two different domains: earning extra credit in a course and grocery shopping, domains presumed to be of different levels of knowledge to younger and older adults. Older adults showed consistent choice for both domains; younger adults showed consistent choice only for the extra credit problem. Several explanations of these findings are considered, including Damasio's somatic marker theory and age differences in reliance on heuristic versus analytic styles.
The idea that "faster is better" is powerful in cars, computing, and cognitive psychology. Group ... more The idea that "faster is better" is powerful in cars, computing, and cognitive psychology. Group differences, especially age differences, are often ascribed to the better performing group's faster processing. We report two experiments that assessed the contribution of an attentionalperceptual variable, visual distraction, in determining age differences in classic speed tasks.
Difficulty with memory retrieval is a salient feature of cognitive aging and may be related to a ... more Difficulty with memory retrieval is a salient feature of cognitive aging and may be related to a reduction in the ability to suppress items that compete for retrieval. To test this hypothesis directly, we presented a series of words for shallow coding that included pairs of orthographically similar words (e.g., ALLERGY and ANALOGY). After a delay, participants solved word fragments (e.g., A _ L _ _ GY) that resembled both words in a pair but could only be completed by one. We measured the consequence of having successfully resolved competition by having participants read a list of words including the rejected competitors as quickly as possible. Response time was compared to control conditions that did not require resolving competition. Older adults showed no evidence of suppression; instead they showed priming for the competitors, in sharp contrast to strong suppression effects previously observed in younger adults. Whereas previous studies have provided indirect evidence for suppression deficits by examining the ability to produce targets in high interference situations, here we provide direct evidence for a suppression deficit by examining the accessibility of rejected competitors.
In two visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span experiments, older and young participants were tes... more In two visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span experiments, older and young participants were tested under conditions of either high or low interference, using two different displays: computerized versions of a 3 ϫ 3 matrix or the standard (randomly arrayed) Corsi block task (P. M. . Older adults' VSWM estimates were increased in the low-interference, compared with the high-interference, condition, replicating findings with verbal memory span studies. Young adults showed the opposite pattern, and together the findings suggest that typical VSWM span tasks include opposing components (interference and practice) that differentially affect young and older adults.
Evidence from perceptually based implicit memory tasks demonstrates greater priming from distract... more Evidence from perceptually based implicit memory tasks demonstrates greater priming from distracting information among older compared with younger adults. We examined whether older adults also show greater conceptually based implicit priming from distracting information. We measured priming using a general-knowledge test that was preceded by an incidental-encoding task (a color-naming Stroop task in one experiment and a 1-back task involving pictures with irrelevant words superimposed in a second experiment). Younger adults showed no priming from the distracting information in either experiment, whereas older adults showed reliable priming in both experiments. Thus, unlike young adults, older adults process irrelevant information conceptually and then can use that information to boost their performance on a subsequent task.
We investigated the possibility that implicit memory, like explicit memory, can be disrupted by p... more We investigated the possibility that implicit memory, like explicit memory, can be disrupted by proactive interference. Participants first viewed a list of words, with nontargets in the first half of the list and targets in the second. Nontargets were either similar in structure (e.g., "ANALOGY") or unrelated (e.g., "URGENCY") to the targets (e.g., "ALLERGY"). After several filler tasks, participants completed an implicit fragment-completion test (e.g., "A_L_ _ GY") for the target items. Participants who viewed similar nontargets completed fewer fragments with target items and made more intrusions than did participants who viewed unrelated nontargets. Together with previous findings, these results suggest that similar nontargets can compete with target items to produce interference in implicit memory.
Does interference, a primary source of forgetting in explicit memory, also affect implicit memory... more Does interference, a primary source of forgetting in explicit memory, also affect implicit memory? Several early and highly influential studies have suggested that implicit memory is immune to interference. In contrast, a number of subsequent investigations have reported evidence for interference. As well, amnesic patients, whose performance relies primarily on implicit memory, often show interference effects. A review of methods, materials, and findings suggests that interference occurs on implicit tests when targets and nontargets are similar and so compete as potential responses to the memory cue. Further, there is some evidence that the degree of interference on implicit tasks is affected by the number of competing items and their strength relative to the target. Interference effects in implicit memory seem to parallel those in explicit memory, and the authors consider the implications of this conclusion for theoretical concepts of memory and the brain.
The authors investigated the possibility that working memory span tasks are influenced by interfe... more The authors investigated the possibility that working memory span tasks are influenced by interference and that interference contributes to the correlation between span and other measures. Younger and older adults received the span task either in the standard format or one designed to reduce the impact of interference with no impact on capacity demands. Participants then read and recalled a short prose passage. Reducing the amount of interference in the span task raised span scores, replicating previous results (C. P. May, L. Hasher, & M. J. Kane, 1999). The same interference-reducing manipulations that raised span substantially altered the relation between span and prose recall. These results suggest that span is influenced by interference, that age differences in span may be due to differences in the ability to overcome interference rather than to differences in capacity, and that interference plays an important role in the relation between span and other tasks.
A decision-maker is “irregular” if she would choose B from {A, B, C} but not from {A, B} (for exa... more A decision-maker is “irregular” if she would choose B from {A, B, C} but not from {A, B} (for example, preferring vanilla ice cream in a choice between vanilla and chocolate, but chocolate in a choice among vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). Similarly to previous studies we observed irregular choices by college students faced with hypothetical discount cards for supermarkets. However,
Behavioral evidence suggests that the attention-based ability to regulate distraction varies acro... more Behavioral evidence suggests that the attention-based ability to regulate distraction varies across the day in synchrony with a circadian arousal rhythm that changes across the life span. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we assessed whether neural activity in an attention control network also varies across the day and with behavioral markers. We tested older adults in the morning or afternoon and younger adults tested in the afternoon using a 1-back task with superimposed distractors, followed by an implicit test for the distractors. Behavioral results replicated earlier findings with older adults tested in the morning better able to ignore distraction than those tested in the afternoon. Imaging results showed that time of testing modulates task-related fMRI signals in older adults and that age differences were reduced when older adults are tested at peak times of day. In particular, older adults tested in the morning activated similar cognitive control regions to...
There is a need for rapid and reliable Internet-based screening tools for cognitive assessment in... more There is a need for rapid and reliable Internet-based screening tools for cognitive assessment in middle-aged and older adults. We report the psychometric properties of an on-line tool designed to screen for cognitive deficits that require further investigation. The tool is composed of measures of memory and executive attention processes known to be sensitive to brain changes associated with aging and with cognitive disorders that become more prevalent with age. Measures included a Spatial Working Memory task, Stroop Interference task, Face-Name Association task, and Number-Letter Alternation task. Normative data were collected from 361 healthy adults age 50-79 who scored in the normal range on a standardized measure of general cognitive ability. Participants took the 20-minute on-line test on their home computers, and a subset of 288 participants repeated the test 1 week later. Analyses of the individual tasks indicated adequate internal consistency, construct validity, test-retest...
Age-related memory deficits may result from attending to too much information (inhibition deficit... more Age-related memory deficits may result from attending to too much information (inhibition deficit) and/or storing too little information (binding deficit). The present study evaluated the inhibition and binding accounts by exploiting a situation in which deficits of inhibition should benefit relational memory binding. Older adults directed more viewing toward abrupt onsets in scenes compared with younger adults under instructions to ignore any such onsets, providing evidence for age-related inhibitory deficits, which were ameliorated with additional practice. Subsequently, objects that served as abrupt onsets underwent changes in their spatial relations. Despite successful inhibition of the onsets, eye movements of younger adults were attracted to manipulated objects. In contrast, the eye movements of older adults, who directed more viewing to the late onsets compared with younger adults, were not attracted toward manipulated regions. Similar differences between younger and older adults in viewing of manipulated regions were observed under free viewing conditions. These findings provide evidence for concurrent inhibition and binding deficits in older adults and demonstrate that age-related declines in inhibitory processing do not lead to enhanced relational memory for extraneous information.
Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger... more Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger adults. Elsewhere we have argued that many age-related changes in cognitive function are rooted in an impaired ability to inhibit irrelevant information and inappropriate responses. In this chapter we review evidence that as a direct result of impaired inhibitory processes, older adults tend to be highly
Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger... more Older adults show a characteristic pattern of impaired and spared functioning relative to younger adults. Elsewhere we have argued that many age-related changes in cognitive function are rooted in an impaired ability to inhibit irrelevant information and inappropriate responses. In this chapter we review evidence that as a direct result of impaired inhibitory processes, older adults tend to be highly
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 2005
Previous work showed that older adults' choice performance can be wiser than that of younger adul... more Previous work showed that older adults' choice performance can be wiser than that of younger adults . We contrasted two possible interpretations: a general expertise/wisdom view that suggests that older adults are generally more skilled at making decisions than younger adults and a domain-specific expertise view that suggests that older adults are more skilled decision makers only in domains in which they have greater knowledge. These hypotheses were contrasted using attraction effect tasks in two different domains: earning extra credit in a course and grocery shopping, domains presumed to be of different levels of knowledge to younger and older adults. Older adults showed consistent choice for both domains; younger adults showed consistent choice only for the extra credit problem. Several explanations of these findings are considered, including Damasio's somatic marker theory and age differences in reliance on heuristic versus analytic styles.
The idea that "faster is better" is powerful in cars, computing, and cognitive psychology. Group ... more The idea that "faster is better" is powerful in cars, computing, and cognitive psychology. Group differences, especially age differences, are often ascribed to the better performing group's faster processing. We report two experiments that assessed the contribution of an attentionalperceptual variable, visual distraction, in determining age differences in classic speed tasks.
Difficulty with memory retrieval is a salient feature of cognitive aging and may be related to a ... more Difficulty with memory retrieval is a salient feature of cognitive aging and may be related to a reduction in the ability to suppress items that compete for retrieval. To test this hypothesis directly, we presented a series of words for shallow coding that included pairs of orthographically similar words (e.g., ALLERGY and ANALOGY). After a delay, participants solved word fragments (e.g., A _ L _ _ GY) that resembled both words in a pair but could only be completed by one. We measured the consequence of having successfully resolved competition by having participants read a list of words including the rejected competitors as quickly as possible. Response time was compared to control conditions that did not require resolving competition. Older adults showed no evidence of suppression; instead they showed priming for the competitors, in sharp contrast to strong suppression effects previously observed in younger adults. Whereas previous studies have provided indirect evidence for suppression deficits by examining the ability to produce targets in high interference situations, here we provide direct evidence for a suppression deficit by examining the accessibility of rejected competitors.
In two visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span experiments, older and young participants were tes... more In two visuospatial working memory (VSWM) span experiments, older and young participants were tested under conditions of either high or low interference, using two different displays: computerized versions of a 3 ϫ 3 matrix or the standard (randomly arrayed) Corsi block task (P. M. . Older adults' VSWM estimates were increased in the low-interference, compared with the high-interference, condition, replicating findings with verbal memory span studies. Young adults showed the opposite pattern, and together the findings suggest that typical VSWM span tasks include opposing components (interference and practice) that differentially affect young and older adults.
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Papers by Lynn Hasher