Abstract
ABSTRACTWhether older adults can compensate for their associative memory deficit by using memory strategies efficiently might depend on their general cognitive abilities. This study examined the moderating role of an IQ estimate on the beneficial effects of strategy instructions. A total of 142 participants (aged 18–85 years) received either intentional learning or strategy (“sentence generation”) instructions during encoding of word pairs. Whereas young adults with a lower IQ benefited from strategy instructions, those with a higher IQ did not, presumably because they already use strategies spontaneously. Older adults showed the opposite effect: following strategy instructions, older adults with a higher IQ showed a strong increase in memory performance (approximately achieving the level of younger adults), whereas older adults with a lower IQ did not, suggesting that they have difficulties implementing the provided strategies. These results highlight the importance of the role of IQ in compensating for the aging-related memory decline.
Highlights
Older adults often report having difficulties remembering names of people they meet
For the main research questions regarding the associative deficit in older adults, the effect of strategy instructions and the moderating role of IQ, multiple regression analyses were performed for the immediate item and immediate associative recognition Hit–False alarm (FA) rates
This study examined the effect of strategy instructions on memory performance across the adult lifespan, with specific interest in the role of IQ
Summary
Older adults often report having difficulties remembering names of people they meet. They tend to recognize the name or the face independently, but find it difficult to integrate the name and the face into a cohesive representation. This is in line with the associative deficit hypothesis (Naveh-Benjamin, 2000), which states that older adults are impaired in associative memory, whereas they have less problems with remembering single items (Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996; Old & NavehBenjamin, 2008).
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