Hypermnesia: a further examination of age differences between young and older adults.

Previous studies that examined age differences in hypermnesia reported inconsistent results. The present experiment investigated whether the different study materials in these studies were responsible for the inconsistency. In particular, the present experiment examined whether the use of a video, as opposed to words and pictures, would eliminate previously reported age differences in hypermnesia. Fifteen college students and 15 older adults viewed a 3-minute video clip followed by two free-recall tests. The results indicated that older adults, as a whole, did not show hypermnesia. However, when older adults were divided into low and high memory groups based on test 1 performance, the high memory group showed hypermnesia whereas the low memory group did not show hypermnesia. The older adults in the low memory group were significantly older than the older adults in the high memory group - indicating that hypermnesia is inversely related to age in older adults. Reminiscence did not show an age-related difference in either the low or high memory group whereas inter-test forgetting did show an age difference in the low memory group. As expected, older adults showed greater inter-test forgetting than young adults in the low memory group. Findings from the present experiment suggest that video produces a pattern of results that is similar to the patterns obtained when words and pictures are used as study material. Thus, it appears that the nature of study material is not the source of inconsistency across the previous studies.

Classification accuracy across multiple tests following item method directed forgetting.

We investigated recall of line-drawing pictures paired at study with an instruction either to remember (TBR items) or to forget (TBF items). Across three 7-minute tests, net recall (items reported independent of accuracy in instructional designation) and correctly classified recall (recall conditional on correct instructional designation) showed directed forgetting. That is, for both measures, recall of TBR items always exceeded recall of TBF items. Net recall for both item types increased across tests at comparable levels showing hypermnesia. However, across tests, correct classification of both item types decreased at comparable levels. Collectively, hypermnesia as measured by net recall is possible for items from multiple sets, but at the cost of accurate source information.

Memory for emotionally arousing stimuli: a comparison of younger and older adults.

The authors compared emotional memory in younger (aged 18-32 years) and older (aged 59-84 years) adults. Previous researchers who investigated the emotionmemory relationship in younger adults consistently showed that emotional arousal enhances memory for central detail. The present authors' goal was to determine whether a similar effect could be found with older adults. Younger and older adults viewed a series of 12 slides, accompanied by a taped narrative, that showed emotionally arousing or neutral scenes in the middle phase (Slides 5-8). Participants then completed recognition tests that were scored for central detail, peripheral detail, and gist. The results indicated that, although younger adults showed higher performance than older adults did, both groups showed increased memory for central detail. In contrast, the authors found no such enhancement for peripheral detail or gist in either group. These results indicated that the arousal manipulation produced a similar effect on memory in younger and older adults. Furthermore, these results were consistent with the notion of poststimulus elaboration, which is the continued processing of central detail after the termination of an arousing event.

Examining information processing biases in spider phobia using the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm.

Empirical research has demonstrated the existence of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety disorders. Paradigms commonly used to assess attentional biases have failed to demonstrate consistent findings as well as reveal the specific features of attentional biases. The current study investigated the utility of the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm in assessing attentional biases among 40 undergraduate students with high spider phobia (SP) symptoms and 40 undergraduate students with low SP symptoms. Results revealed that across participants, threatening information was processed in a facilitated and automatic manner and resulted in an immediate (i.e., within 120 ms) attentional capture. Following immediate attentional capture, however, only high SP participants exhibited an attentional alertness towards subsequent stimuli following threat presentation. These results extend traditional attentional bias literature, and theoretical implications are discussed.

Segregation accuracy in item-method directed forgetting across multiple tests.

Two experiments examined recall across tests following item-method directed-forgetting instructions and the varying of presentation duration of items at study. For both immediate testing (Experiment 1) and delayed testing (Experiment 2), accurate recall of remember instruction items (R-items) exceeded the accurate recall of forget instruction items (F-items). However, some F-items from study were inaccurately recalled as R-items and R-items from study as F-items. Inaccurate recall persisted across tests for both immediate and delayed recall and increased across tests for immediate recall. We view the R-item advantage in accurate recall as consistent with the account they receive more rehearsal at study than do F-items. We view inaccurate recall as reflecting the bias to report items retrieved on an immediate test lacking instructional tags as F-items. On delayed tests, items retrieved lacking instructional tags are first assessed against a criterion point on a memory-strength continuum and those with strength above the criterion reported as R-items and those below the criterion as F-items.