Differential protective role of control and representation against age-related memory decline.

Abstract

Control and representation (Craik & Bialystok, 2006, 2008) could be considered as potential cognitive resources playing a protective role against age-related memory decline. The main objective of this study was to explore whether the protective role (passive vs. active) associated with these resources varies according to the characteristics of the memory task. Young and older adults' memory performance was assessed using a cued-recall and a recognition task. Control and representation were measured, using the Excluded Letter Fluency Test and the Mill Hill vocabulary test, respectively. The results revealed that both control and representation had a significant positive impact on performance in both memory tasks. However, in the cued-recall task, age interacted only with control and not with representation level. Memory performance in this task was correlated with the control measure only for the older adults, indicating that memory decline in this task is moderated by control level. By contrast, for the recognition task, results showed that age interacted only with representation, indicating that the association between representation and recognition performance was greater for the older than the younger adults. This suggests that age-related recognition decline is moderated by representation level. These results suggest that the role played by both control and representation as protective resources against age-related memory decline depends on the task features; control would have an active protective role for cued-recall tasks, which involve more self-initiated and strategic processes, whereas representation would play this active protective role in a recognition task, which is heavily dependent upon semantic processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).