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Abstract:
Age related sensory decline can impact cognitive performance.
The present study tests the impact of age-related visual decline on
recognition memory of novel visual objects . An adaptive filter
created to simulate the visual experience of an 80 year-old
transformed stimuli presented to young adults (the degraded
condition). Experiment 1measured ERP's in a within subject design
(normal and & degraded stimuli) during the memory test. P3 peak
latency increased with the degraded stimuli, but no memory
performance differences were seen. Subjects frequently reported
naming the stimuli as a memory strategy. Experiment 2 used the same
within subjects design but included the use of articulatory
suppression during the study list to reduce naming. The visually
degraded condition produced an even greater P3 peak latency
increase than seen in Experiment 1 as well as less accurate memory
performance. Results suggest that age-related visual decline can
impair recognition memory when verbal encoding is minimized.
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