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Abstract:
Age-related deficits in memory are greater as encoding and
retrieval tasks require more reflective (executive) processing
(Craik, Morris, & Gick, 1990; Light, 1991). To clarify the
nature of age-related cognitive deficits, we investigated an
elementary, but critical, component of reflection-refreshing a
just-active representation in order to sustain activation of
information across brief time intervals (Johnson, 1992). While
reading words, participants were cued to think of the just previous
word (refresh), saw the previous item again (repeat), or read a new
item (read). Even for this simple cognitive operation, we found an
age-related deficit manifested in indirect and direct measures of
memory. We replicated previous results indicating relatively
preserved memorial consequences of perceptual processes (repetition
priming) in aging (e.g., Fleishchman & Gabrieli, 1998; Howard
& Wiggs, 1993; La Voie & Light, 1994). More important, for
young adults, refreshing an active representation did not affect
perceptual identification of the item but facilitated later old/new
recognition. In contrast, older adults showed more difficulty
refreshing an active representation and less benefit from the
refresh operation, as indicated by the negative impact of
refreshing on perceptual identification of the same word, and no
benefit from refreshing relative to a second presentation of the
item on long term recognition memory.
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