The respective contribution of cognitive control and working memory to semantic and subjective organization in aging.

Organizing information is beneficial to episodic memory performance. Among several possible organizational strategies, two consist of organizing the information in semantic clusters (semantic organization) or self-organizing the information based on new associations that do not exist in semantic memory (subjective organization). Here, we investigated in a single study how these two organizational behaviors were underlined by different controlled processes and whether these relations were subjected to age-related differences. We tested 123 younger adults (n = 63) and older adults (n = 60) on two episodic memory tasks, one where the words were organizable and another where the words were not organizable, allowing for semantic and subjective organization, respectively. Additionally, participants were tested on three cognitive control tasks (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Stroop Test and Trail Making Test) and three working memory tasks (Backward Digit Span, Alpha Span and N-back test). Results revealed well-established age-related differences in terms of recall performance and organizational strategy implementation. More importantly, we found evidence that the different cognitive tests statistically yielded two different latent factors, a cognitive control factor and a working memory factor. Based on this dissociation, we found that only cognitive control contributed to semantic organization in all age groups whereas only working memory contributed to subjective organization, also in all age groups. These results shed new lights on our understanding of how controlled processes differently contribute to organizational behaviors in episodic memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

[Episodic memory and Alzheimer's disease: evolution of theories and clinical assessment tools]. / Mémoire épisodique et maladie d'Alzheimer : évolution des théories et des outils d'évaluation clinique.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by an impairment of episodic memory in the early stages of the disease. Neuropsychological evaluation is performed for diagnostic purposes and to personalize follow-up. However, although many tests have been developed over the last few decades, not all of them seem to be able to meet this dual challenge. Through a review of the evolution of the concept of episodic memory and of knowledge about the disease, we discuss how neuropsychological tools have adapted. We question the interests and limits of existing tools for patients with Alzheimer's disease. At the end of this review, we suggest the criteria to be taken into account in order to propose a more integrative evaluation, able to describe the difficulties encountered as close as possible to the lived experience.

The protective effect of educational level varies as a function of the difficulty of the memory task in ageing.

This study aimed to explore the effects of age and educational level on recall performance and organisational strategies used during recall as a function of the level of memory task difficulty. Younger (n = 55, age range = 20-39 years) and older (n = 45, age range = 65-75 years) adults learned a word list where the words were either already semantically grouped (easier) or presented in pseudo-random order (harder), and then recalled the words. The number of words recalled was calculated, and an index of clustering was computed to assess organisational strategies. Older adults recalled less words than the younger ones. Older adults with a higher educational level recalled more words than their counterparts with a lower educational level when the memory task was easier, but they all performed similarly on the harder memory task. Moreover, we noted a strong positive association between educational level and semantic organisation in older adults when the memory task was easier. Regardless of educational level, older adults used semantic organisation as much as younger adults when the memory task was easier. However, when the memory task was harder, older adults showed significantly less organisational strategies than younger adults, the latter using semantic organisation to boost their recall performance. In sum, the protective effect of educational level seems to be restricted on recall performance, but not organisational strategies, in easy memory tasks providing sufficient external information about the most efficient mnemonic strategy to use. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00724-z.

Metamemory mediates the protective effect of cognitive reserve on episodic memory during aging.

The present study investigated the impact of cognitive reserve on episodic memory and metamemory control during aging using a multidimensional index of cognitive reserve and a measure of metamemory control abilities. We tested the hypotheses that cognitive reserve may play a protective role against age-related differences in episodic memory and metamemory control and that metamemory control may mediate the effect of cognitive reserve on episodic memory during aging. Young and older adults carried out a readiness-recall task in which task difficulty was manipulated through a variation of the nature of the cue-target pair link (weak vs. strong semantic associates). Episodic memory was assessed through recall performance, and metamemory by a task difficulty index reflecting the ability to adjust study time to task difficulty. Results confirmed that older adults recall fewer words, indicating an age-related deficit in episodic memory, and that older adults adjust less to task difficulty, suggesting impaired metamemory control. Findings also showed that metamemory control moderates the age-related decline in episodic memory and that cognitive reserve plays a protective role against age-related deficits in episodic memory and metamemory control. In addition, metamemory abilities mediated the beneficial effect of cognitive reserve on episodic memory performance during aging. Hence, this study sheds new light on the mechanisms underlying the impact of cognitive reserve on cognitive aging, highlighting the role of metacognitive processes.

Aging, memory performance and metacognitive beliefs: a narrative review / Vieillissement, performances mnésiques et croyances métacognitives : une revue narrative

Aging is characterized by an increase in older adults' negative beliefs about their memory. These negative metamemory beliefs are thought to decrease their motivation to engage in memory tasks and to implement effective memory strategies leading to decreased memory performance. Memory assessment conditions tend to accentuate this phenomenon by increasing the salience of negative metamemory beliefs, resulting in an artificial reduction in memory performance (i.e., stereotype threat). However, experimental interventions like allowing participants to successfully complete a cognitive task before memory assessment (i.e., prior task success condition) would improve older adults' metamemory beliefs, allowing them to increase their memory performance. The effect of these psycho-emotional and contextual factors must be taken into account, as they are likely to induce bias in research and clinical examinations.

Le vieillissement est caractérisé par une augmentation des croyances négatives des adultes âgés à propos de leur mémoire. Ces croyances métamnésiques négatives diminueraient leur motivation à s'engager dans les tâches de mémoire et à mettre en place les stratégies efficaces conduisant à une diminution des performances mnésiques. Les conditions d'évaluation de la mémoire tendent à accentuer ce phénomène en augmentant la saillance des croyances métamnésiques négatives, ce qui entraîne une réduction artificielle des performances de mémoire (i.e., menace du stéréotype). Toutefois, certaines interventions expérimentales (e.g., réussite préalable) permettraient d'améliorer les croyances métamnésiques des adultes âgés, augmentant ainsi leur performance de mémoire. La prise en compte de l'effet de ces facteurs psychoaffectifs et contextuels est importante puisqu'ils sont susceptibles d'induire des biais lors des recherches et des examens cliniques.

Self-esteem effect on recall and recognition in episodic memory, in young and older adults.

The effect of age on episodic memory has recently been shown to be modulated by individual characteristics such as psycho-emotional status. We investigated the combined effects of age and a psycho-emotional variable, Self-Esteem, on episodic memory (Cued-recall and recognition). We also examined the contribution of anxiety level on the influence of Self-Esteem on episodic memory during aging. This study revealed different patterns of the Self-Esteem effect according to age group. The effect on cued-recall was accounted for by Anxiety in the younger adults, although Self-Esteem and Anxiety seem to be overlapping dimensions for this age group. By contrast, in the older adults, the two factors influenced memory performance (recognition) independently, suggesting that older adults are particularly sensitive to the factors associated with the Self. We also postulate that there is a zone of optimal executive control by the Self (region of proximal executive control), corresponding to task difficulty linked to the individual's feeling of self-efficacy.

Executive functioning and processing speed in age-related differences in time estimation: a comparison of young, old, and very old adults.

Age-related differences in time estimation were examined by comparing the temporal performance of young, young-old, and old-old adults, in relation to two major theories of cognitive aging: executive decline and cognitive slowing. We tested the hypothesis that processing speed and executive function are differentially involved in timing depending on the temporal task used. We also tested the assumption of greater age-related effects in time estimation in old-old participants. Participants performed two standard temporal tasks: duration production and duration reproduction. They also completed tests measuring executive function and processing speed. Findings supported the view that executive function is the best mediator of reproduction performance and inversely that processing speed is the best mediator of production performance. They also showed that young-old participants provide relatively accurate temporal judgments compared to old-old participants. These findings are discussed in terms of compensation mechanisms in aging.

Brain tissue pulsatility mediates cognitive and electrophysiological changes in normal aging: Evidence from ultrasound tissue pulsatility imaging (TPI).

Aging is characterized by a cognitive decline of fluid abilities and is also associated with electrophysiological changes. The vascular hypothesis proposes that brain is sensitive to vascular dysfunction which may accelerate age-related brain modifications and thus explain age-related neurocognitive decline. To test this hypothesis, cognitive performance was measured in 39 healthy participants from 20 to 80 years, using tests assessing inhibition, fluid intelligence, attention and crystallized abilities. Brain functioning associated with attentional abilities was assessed by measuring the P3b ERP component elicited through an auditory oddball paradigm. To assess vascular health, we used an innovative measure of the pulsatility of deep brain tissue, due to variations in cerebral blood flow over the cardiac cycle. Results showed (1) a classical effect of age on fluid neurocognitive measures (inhibition, fluid intelligence, magnitude and latency of the P3b) but not on crystallized measures, (2) that brain pulsatility decreases with advancing age, (3) that brain pulsatility is positively correlated with fluid neurocognitive measures and (4) that brain pulsatility strongly mediated the age-related variance in cognitive performance and the magnitude of the P3b component. The mediating role of the brain pulsatility in age-related effect on neurocognitive measures supports the vascular hypothesis of cognitive aging.

Age-related differences in time-based prospective memory: The role of time estimation in the clock monitoring strategy.

Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) is required when it is necessary to remember to perform an action at a specific future point in time. This type of memory has been found to be particularly sensitive to ageing, probably because it requires a self-initiated response at a specific time. In this study, we sought to examine the involvement of temporal processes in the time monitoring strategy, which has been demonstrated to be a decisive factor in TBPM efficiency. We compared the performance of young and older adults in a TBPM task in which they had to press a response button every minute while categorising words. The design allowed participants to monitor time by checking a clock whenever they decided. Participants also completed a classic time-production task and several executive tasks assessing inhibition, updating and shifting processes. Our results confirm an age-related lack of accuracy in prospective memory performance, which seems to be related to a deficient strategic use of time monitoring. This could in turn be partially explained by age-related temporal deficits, as evidenced in the duration production task. These findings suggest that studies designed to investigate the age effect in TBPM tasks should consider the contribution of temporal mechanisms.

Differential involvement of knowledge representation and executive control in episodic memory performance in young and older adults.

Craik and Bialystok (2006, 2008) postulated that examining the evolution of knowledge representation and control processes across the life span could help in understanding age-related cognitive changes. The present study explored the hypothesis that knowledge representation and control processes are differentially involved in the episodic memory performance of young and older adults. Young and older adults were administered a cued-recall task and tests of crystallized knowledge and executive functioning to measure representation and control processes, respectively. Results replicate the classic finding that executive and cued-recall performance decline with age, but crystallized-knowledge performance does not. Factor analysis confirmed the independence of representation and control. Correlation analyses showed that the memory performance of younger adults was correlated with representation but not with control measures, whereas the memory performance of older adults was correlated with both representation and control measures. Regression analyses indicated that the control factor was the main predictor of episodic-memory performance for older adults, with the representation factor adding an independent contribution, but the representation factor was the sole predictor for young adults. This finding supports the view that factors sustaining episodic memory vary from young adulthood to old age; representation was shown to be important throughout adulthood, and control was also important for older adults. The results also indicated that control and representation modulate age-group-related variance in episodic memory.

Aging and self-reported internal and external memory strategy uses: the role of executive functioning.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of advanced age on self-reported internal and external memory strategy uses, and whether this effect can be predicted by executive functioning. A sample of 194 participants aged 21 to 80 divided into three age groups (21-40, 41-60, 61-80) completed the two strategy scales of the Metamemory in Adulthood (MIA) questionnaire, differentiating between internal and external everyday memory strategy uses, and three tests of executive functioning. The results showed that: (1) the use of external memory strategies increased with age, whereas use of internal memory strategy decreased; (2) executive functioning appeared to be related only to internal strategies, the participants who reported the greatest use of internal strategies having the highest executive level; and (3) executive functioning accounted for a sizeable proportion of the age-related variance in internal strategy use. These findings suggest that older adults preferentially use external memory strategies to cope with everyday memory impairment due to aging. They also support the view that the age-related decrease in the implementation of internal memory strategies can be explained by the executive hypothesis of cognitive aging. This result parallels those observed using objective laboratory memory strategy measures and then supports the validity of self-reported memory strategy questionnaire.

Executive functioning and processing speed in age-related differences in memory: contribution of a coding task.

The aim of the present study was to examine executive dysfunctioning and decreased processing speed as potential mediators of age-related differences in episodic memory. We compared the performances of young and elderly adults in a free-recall task. Participants were also given tests to measure executive functions and perceptual processing speed and a coding task (the Digit Symbol Substitution Test, DSST). More precisely, we tested the hypothesis that executive functions would mediate the age-related differences observed in the free-recall task better than perceptual speed. We also tested the assumption that a coding task, assumed to involve both executive processes and perceptual speed, would be the best mediator of age-related differences in memory. Findings first confirmed that the DSST combines executive processes and perceptual speed. Secondly, they showed that executive functions are a significant mediator of age-related differences in memory, and that DSST performance is the best predictor.

The effect of aging in recollective experience: the processing speed and executive functioning hypothesis.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of aging on consciousness in recognition memory, using the Remember/Know/Guess procedure (Gardiner, J. M., & Richarson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and Knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press.). In recognition memory, older participants report fewer occasions on which recognition is accompanied by recollection of the original encoding context. Two main hypotheses were tested: the speed mediation hypothesis (Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 3, 403-428) and the executive-aging hypothesis (West, R. L. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 272-292). A group of young and a group of older adults took a recognition test in which they classified their responses according to Gardiner, J. M., & Richarson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and Knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press. remember-know-guess paradigm. Subsequently, participants completed processing speed and executive function tests. The results showed that among the older participants, R responses decreased, but K responses did not. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis supported the view that the effect of age in recollection experience is determined by frontal lobe integrity and not by diminution of processing speed.

Aging and strategic retrieval in a cued-recall test: the role of executive functions and fluid intelligence.

Cued-recall in episodic memory was investigated in relation to low and high cognitive support at retrieval, executive function level and fluid intelligence level in 81 healthy adults divided first into two age groups (young and elderly adults). The first analyses showed that age-related differences were greater when a low cognitive support was provided to recall the words. An individual index of loss of performance when the number of cues was decreased was then calculated. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the executive functions measure (perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) was a better candidate than the fluid intelligence measure (Cattell's culture fair test) to account for the age-related variance of the size of performance loss. These findings suggest that age differences in implementing strategic retrieval may be mainly due to a decline in executive functions.

Aging and implementation of encoding strategies in the generation of rhymes: the role of executive functions.

This experiment examines whether the age-related decrease in the generation effect of rhymes is mediated by executive functioning. Young and elderly adults read and generated pairs of rhyming words for subsequent recall. Participants were also administered neuropsychological tests (executive and mnemonic functions). Results showed that elderly adults performed less well on the neuropsychological tests and benefited less than the younger participants from the generation effect. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the executive functions composite score was correlated with the generation effect and that it accounted for a large proportion of the age-related variance of the size of this measure. This finding supports the view that the age-related decrement in strategic encoding implementation is due to a decrease of executive functioning.

Age-related changes in duration reproduction: involvement of working memory processes.

The aim of the present research was to study age-related changes in duration reproduction by differentiating the working memory processes underlying this time estimation task. We compared performances of young and elderly adults in a duration reproduction task performed in simple and concurrent task conditions. Participants were also administered working memory tests to measure storage and central executive functions. Findings indicated a differential involvement of working memory storage and central executive functions in age-related differences in temporal tasks. The limited storage capacities explained age-related changes in the simple task of duration reproduction, and the dysfunctioning of central executive functions accounted for age-related changes in duration reproduction performed in a concurrent task condition, which involves greater attentional resources.

Differential involvement of internal clock and working memory in the production and reproduction of duration: a study on older adults.

The present study uses the inter-individual variability in time perception of a group of elderly participants to differentiate the processes underlying time production and time reproduction. Participants performed duration production and reproduction tasks. They were also administered working memory tests and a spontaneous motor tempo task. The findings suggest that duration production and duration reproduction involve different mechanisms. Correlational analyses revealed a double dissociation: production was only correlated with spontaneous motor tempo and reproduction only with working memory measures. These findings suggest that the internal clock rate modulates the production of duration and that reproduced duration varies according to working memory capacities.

Age-related cognitive slowing: the role of spontaneous tempo and processing speed.

This research studied the relationships between two types of slowing observed in aging-loss of general processing speed and slowing of spontaneous tempo-in an attempt to test the assumption that there is an internal timing mechanism responsible for cognitive age-related decrease. Processing speed has been evaluated as a mediator of the relationship between age and working memory, concurrently with spontaneous tempo measures. The authors compared the performance of young and older adults on tasks involving spontaneous motor tempo, processing speed, and working memory. The findings confirmed the agerelated slowing of spontaneous motor tempo but did not indicate superiority of tempo mediation in the decline in working memory. Processing speed appeared to be a major mediator of working memory, but also of spontaneous tempo slowing.