Differences in temporal order memory among young, middle-aged, and older adults may depend on the level of interference

Lindsay J Rotblatt,Emily J Van Etten,Paul E Gilbert,Catherine A Sumida,Jerlyn C Tolentino,Eva Pirogovsky Turk

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2015.00028

Lindsay J Rotblatt, Emily J Van Etten + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00028

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Abstract

Age-related changes in temporal order memory have been well documented in older adults; however, little is known about this ability during middle age. We tested healthy young, middle-aged, and older adults on a previously published visuospatial temporal order memory test involving high and low interference conditions. When interference was low, young and middle-aged adults did not differ, but both groups significantly outperformed older adults. However, when interference was high, significant differences were found among all three age groups. The data provide evidence that temporal order memory may begin to decline in middle age, particularly when temporal interference is high.

Highlights

In the low interference condition, the analysis revealed a significant difference among the age groups, F(2,143) = 10.943, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.13
The finding that older adults are impaired relative to young adults on a temporal order task is consistent with prior studies (Newman et al, 2001; Kessels et al, 2007; Old and Naveh-Benjamin, 2008; Ulbrich et al, 2009; Blachstein et al, 2012; Tolentino et al, 2012; Roberts et al, 2014)
The current findings are consistent with recent studies by Tolentino et al (2012) and Roberts et al (2014), suggesting that temporal order memory abilities in older adults may be influenced by the level of interference involved in the task

Summary

Introduction

Age-related deficits in memory for the temporal order of items or events in a sequence have been well documented in older humans (Newman et al, 2001; Kessels et al, 2007; Old and Naveh-Benjamin, 2008; Ulbrich et al, 2009; Blachstein et al, 2012; Tolentino et al, 2012; Roberts et al, 2014). As reviewed by Kesner and Hopkins (2006), studies have shown that items occurring further apart in a temporal sequence are easier to remember than items that are temporally adjacent using various tests in both humans and animals. This is hypothesized to occur because there is more interference between temporally proximal stimuli in a sequence than temporally distant stimuli (Gilbert et al, 2001; Kesner and Hopkins, 2006; Tolentino et al, 2012; Roberts et al, 2014). One group of older adults was found to show a general impairment in temporal order memory compared to young

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