Binding of memoriesAdult-age differences and the effects of divided attention in young adults on episodic memory

Abstract

This chapter attempts to determine whether there is a common mechanism underlying the adverse effects on episodic memory of ageing and of attention withdrawal in young people. The first part of the chapter briefly reviews the major findings and theories offered to explain the results in each domain (ageing and divided attention in the young), and specifies the assumptions and predictions of the common mechanism hypothesis. The second part discusses a series of experiments that test an associative deficit (binding) hypothesis (ADH) as one instantiation of the common mechanism hypothesis underlying the poorer episodic memory performance of older adults and of younger adults under divided attention. Finally, the third part discusses the theoretical implications of the empirical evidence provided in this series of experiments. On the whole, the empirical evidence supports an associative deficit mechanism mediating age-related changes in episodic memory performance, but not younger adults' performance under divided attention.