![]() ![]() One matter of theoretical and practical importance concerns the assessment of the constructs of short-term and working memory. This change may also be interpreted in terms of the increased cognitive load that results from tasks requiring the coordination of processing and storage (see Barrouillet, Bernardin, & Camos, 2004, for a discussion of cognitive load). Older adults may be more likely to suffer from changes in functioning of the frontal lobes, which leads to decreased executive functioning abilities ( Myerson, Emery, White, & Hale, 2003). (1999) was interpreted within the broader framework of a frontal-function hypothesis, given the large role of the frontal cortex in controlling behavior and its links to WM performance ( Engle, 2001). Researchers investigating the causes of age-related differences in WM have proposed several views, including single mechanism views (such as processing speed declines, e.g., Salthouse, 1996) and multiple mechanism views (such as dynamic contextual control and output forgetting, e.g. The current study continued in this line of research by conducting an in-depth investigation of adult age differences in three measures of memory span, and extended previous research by including a large number of participants who fall into the age category of oldest-old (90 + years of age). Given the importance of WM to cognitive functioning, age-related differences have been investigated to improve our understanding of the causes of decline in WM performance ( Craik & Bialystock, 2006 Dobbs & Rule, 1989). For example, the link between WM and reading comprehension is well-established ( Daneman & Carpenter, 1980), as well as the relationship of WM and general fluid intelligence ( Salthouse & Pink, 2008 Gray, Chabris, & Braver, 2003). A number of important cognitive functions have been linked to WM processes. WM is considered an active portion of the memory system it is “a temporary storage system under attentional control that underpins our capacity for complex thought” ( Baddeley, 2007, p. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the role of working memory (WM) as a critical component of adult cognition ( Babcock & Salthouse, 1990 Bopp & Verhaeghen, 2005). Focusing research efforts on the oldest segment of the adult population is therefore an important challenge for psychology. Recent demographic trends also indicate major increases in the segment of the population whose age falls into the category of “oldest-old,” yet research into the cognitive capabilities of individuals is limited ( Bäckman, Small, Wahlin, & Larsson, 2000). This number is projected to grow to 20% of the population by the year 2050 (or 88.5 million US Census, 2009). In the year 2009, the number of people in the United States aged 65 or older accounted for 13% of the population (or 39 million people). Implications of these findings for understanding strategic processing abilities in late life are discussed. Correlation analyses indicated the strongest negative correlation with age occurred with the size judgment span task. Participants’ recall patterns in the size judgment span task revealed that the two oldest groups of adults showed the largest decreases in recall performance across output serial positions, but did not differ significantly from each other. To test this hypothesis, we examined output serial position curves of recall data from three span tasks: forward and backward digit span and size judgment span. Previous research suggests that measures of working memory are more sensitive to age effects than simple tests of short-term memory ( Bopp & Verhaeghen, 2005 Myerson, Emery, White, & Hale, 2003). We examined adult age differences in short-term and working memory performance in middle-aged (45–64 years), young-old (65–74 years), old-old (75–89 years) and oldest-old adults (90 years and over) in the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study. ![]()
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