Type Of Stimulus Material Research Articles

Not All Stroop-Type Tasks Are Alike: Assessing the Impact of Stimulus Material, Task Design, and Cognitive Demand via Meta-analyses Across Neuroimaging Studies.

The Stroop effect is one of the most often studied examples of cognitive conflict processing. Over time, many variants of the classic Stroop task were used, including versions with different stimulus material, control conditions, presentation design, and combinations with additional cognitive demands. The neural and behavioral impact of this experimental variety, however, has never been systematically assessed. We used activation likelihood meta-analysis to summarize neuroimaging findings with Stroop-type tasks and to investigate whether involvement of the multiple-demand network (anterior insula, lateral frontal cortex, intraparietal sulcus, superior/inferior parietal lobules, midcingulate cortex, and pre-supplementary motor area) can be attributed to resolving some higher-order conflict that all of the tasks have in common, or if aspects that vary between task versions lead to specialization within this network. Across 133 neuroimaging experiments, incongruence processing in the color-word Stroop variant consistently recruited regions of the multiple-demand network, with modulation of spatial convergence by task variants. In addition, the neural patterns related to solving Stroop-like interference differed between versions of the task that use different stimulus material, with the only overlap between color-word, emotional picture-word, and other types of stimulus material in the posterior medial frontal cortex and right anterior insula. Follow-up analyses on behavior reported in these studies (in total 164 effect sizes) revealed only little impact of task variations on the mean effect size of reaction time. These results suggest qualitative processing differences among the family of Stroop variants, despite similar task difficulty levels, and should carefully be considered when planning or interpreting Stroop-type neuroimaging experiments.

The Pair Test: A computerised measure of learning and memory

There is increasing interest in the assessment of learning and memory in typically developing children as well as in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, neuropsychological assessments have been hampered by the dearth of standardised tests that enable direct comparison between distinct memory processes or between types of stimulus materials. We developed a tablet-based paired-associate learning paradigm, the Pair Test, based on neurocognitive models of learning and memory. The aims are to (i) establish the utility of this novel memory tool for use with children across a wide age range, and (ii) examine test validity, reliability and reproducibility of the construct. The convergent validity of the test was found to be adequate, and higher test reliability was shown for the Pair Test compared to standardised measures. Moderate test–retest reproducibility was shown, despite a long time interval between sessions (14 months). Moreover, the Pair Test is able to capture developmental changes in memory, and can therefore chart the developmental trajectory of memory and learning functions across childhood and adolescence. Finally, we used this novel instrument to acquire normative data from 130 typically developing children, aged 8–18 years. Age-stratified normative data are provided for learning, delayed recall and delayed recognition, for measures of verbal and non-verbal memory. The Pair Test thus provides measures of learning and memory accounting for encoding, consolidation and retrieval processes. As such, the standardised test results can be used to determine the status of learning and memory in healthy children, and also to identify deficits in paediatric patients at risk of damage to the neural network underlying mnemonic functions.

Effect of Sleep Deprivation on the Working Memory-Related N2-P3 Components of the Event-Related Potential Waveform.

Working memory is very sensitive to acute sleep deprivation, and many studies focus on the brain areas or network activities of working memory after sleep deprivation. However, little is known about event-related potential (ERP)-related changes in working memory after sleep loss. The purpose of this research was to explore the effects of 36 h of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on working memory through ERPs. Sixteen healthy college students performed working memory tasks while rested and after 36 h of TSD, and electroencephalography (EEG) data were simultaneously recorded while the subjects completed working memory tasks that included different types of stimulus materials. ERP data were statistically analyzed using repeated measurements analysis of variance to observe the changes in the working memory-related N2-P3 components. Compared with baseline before TSD, the amplitude of N2-P3 components related to working memory decreased, and the latency was prolonged after TSD. However, the increased amplitude of the P2 wave and the prolonged latency were found after 36 h of TSD. Thus, TSD can impair working memory capacity, which is characterized by lower amplitude and prolonged latency.

Effectiveness of Self-Generation During Learning is Dependent on Individual Differences in Need for Cognition.

Self-generated information is better recognized and recalled than read information. This so-called generation effecthas been replicated several times for different types of stimulus material, different generation tasks, and retention intervals. The present study investigated the impact of individual differences in learners’ disposition to engage in effortful cognitive activities (need for cognition, NFC) on the effectiveness of self-generation during learning. Learners low in NFC usually avoid getting engaged in cognitively demanding activities. However, if these learners are explicitly instructed to use elaborate learning strategies such as self-generation, they should benefit more from such strategies than learners high in NFC, because self-generation stimulates cognitive processes that learners low in NFC usually tend not to engage in spontaneously. Using a classical word-generation paradigm, we not only replicated the generation effect in free and cued recall but showed that the magnitude of the generation effect increased with decreasing NFC in cued recall. Results are consistent with our assumption that learners higher in NFC engage in elaborate processing even without explicit instruction, whereas learners lower in NFC usually avoid cognitively demanding activities. These learners need cognitively demanding tasks that require them to switch from shallow to elaborate processing to improve learning. We conclude that self-generation is beneficial regardless of the NFC level, but our study extends the existing literature on the generation effect and on NFC by showing that self-generation can be particularly useful for balancing the learning disadvantage of students lower in NFC.

Culture and Memory

This article presents the results of an investigation of cross-cultural mnemic processes among Moroccan and Ukrainian students, specifically, the effect of placement within a series (including on the right or left side of the visual field), the type of stimulus material (numbers, pictures, geometric figures, color, images of people), and exposure time on recall. The study identified universal and specific features of the recall process and demonstrated that cultural practices and types of activities—reading and writing left to right versus right to left, traditions of visually depicting humans, the form in which texts are displayed (different letterings, calligraphy) and so forth—can shape certain features of memory and recall.

The Bergen left–right discrimination test: practice effects, reliable change indices, and strategic performance in the standard and alternate form with inverted stimuli

Several authors pointed out that left-right discrimination (LRD) tasks may be entangled with differential demands on mental rotation (MR). However, studies considering this interrelationship are rare. To differentially assess LRD of stimuli with varying additional demands on MR, we constructed and evaluated an extended version of the Bergen right-left discrimination (BRLD) test including additional subtests with inverted stickmen stimuli in 174 healthy participants (50♂, 124♀) and measured subjective reports on participants' strategies to accomplish the task. Moreover, we analyzed practice effects and reliable change indices (RCIs) on BRLD performance, as well as gender differences. Performance significantly differed between subtests with high and low demands on MR with best scores on subtests with low demands on MR. Participants' subjective strategies corroborate these results: MR was most frequently reported for subtests with highest MR demands (and lowest test performance). Pronounced practice effects were observed for all subtests. Sex differences were not observed. We conclude that our extended version of the BRLD allows for the differentiation between LRD with high and low demands on MR abilities. The type of stimulus materials is likely to be critical for the differential assessment of MR and LRD. Moreover, RCIs provide a basis for the clinical application of the BRLD.

A comparison of three types of stimulus material in undergraduate mental health nursing education

The paper discusses an innovative educational approach that compared the use of different textual forms as stimulus materials in the teaching of an introductory mental health course. Practitioners in many disciplines, including nursing, appreciate the value of narratives in making sense of experiences, challenging assumptions and enhancing learning: they enable exploration of reality from different perspectives and create an emotional resonance. Narratives help nursing students to uncover embedded meanings, values and beliefs; they can include written texts, illustrated texts or picture books. 180 students enrolled in an elective undergraduate nursing course. This project afforded students the choice of critically analysing (a) a chapter from one of two autobiographies, (b) an illustrated text, or (c) an illustration from a picture book. Each text was a narrative account from a personal or carer's perspective of the experience of mental illness. Their written submissions were then analysed by means of a qualitative descriptive approach. In analysis of the autobiographies students tended to paraphrase the authors' words and summarise their experiences. Those choosing the illustrated text were able to link the images and text, and provide a deeper and more insightful level of interpretation, albeit influenced by the author's personal account and expressed emotions; however, those analysing a picture book illustration demonstrated a surprising level of critical and creative thinking, and their interpretations were empathetic, insightful and thoughtful. The use of picture books, although not a common approach in nursing education, appears to engage students, challenge them to think more deeply, and stimulate their imagination.

Design choices in imaging speech comprehension: An Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analysis

The localisation of spoken language comprehension is debated extensively: is processing located anterior or posterior on the left temporal lobe, and is it left- or bilaterally organised? An Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) analysis was conducted on functional MRI and PET studies investigating speech comprehension to identify the neural network involved in comprehension processing. Furthermore, the analysis aimed to establish the effect of four design choices (scanning paradigm, non-speech baseline, the presence of a task, and the type of stimulus material) on this comprehension network. The analysis included 57 experiments contrasting intelligible with less intelligible or unintelligible stimuli. A large comprehension network was found across bilateral Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS), Middle Temporal Gyrus (MTG) and Superior Temporal (STS) bilaterally, in left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG), left Precentral Gyrus, and Supplementary Motor Area (SMA) and pre-SMA. The core network for post-lexical processing was restricted to the temporal lobes bilaterally with the highest ALE values located anterior to Heschl's Gyrus. Activations in the ALE comprehension network outside the temporal lobes (left IFG, SMA/pre-SMA, and Precentral Gyrus) were driven by the use of sentences instead of words, the scanning paradigm, or the type of non-speech baseline.

Study–Test Congruency Affects Encoding-related Brain Activity for Some but Not All Stimulus Materials

Memory improves when encoding and retrieval processes overlap. Here, we investigated how the neural bases of long-term memory encoding vary as a function of the degree to which functional processes engaged at study are engaged again at test. In an incidental learning paradigm, electrical brain activity was recorded from the scalps of healthy adults while they made size judgments on intermixed series of pictures and words. After a 1-hr delay, memory for the items was tested with a recognition task incorporating remember/know judgments. In different groups of participants, studied items were either probed in the same mode of presentation (word-word; picture-picture) or in the alternative mode of presentation (word-picture; picture-word). Activity over anterior scalp sites predicted later memory of words, irrespective of type of test probe. Encoding-related activity for pictures, by contrast, differed qualitatively depending on how an item was cued at test. When a picture was probed with a picture, activity over anterior scalp sites predicted encoding success. When a picture was probed with a word, encoding-related activity was instead maximal over posterior sites. Activity differed according to study-test congruency from around 100 msec after picture onset. These findings indicate that electrophysiological correlates of encoding are sensitive to the similarity between processes engaged at study and test. The time course supports a direct and not merely consequential role of encoding-retrieval overlap in encoding. However, because congruency only affected one type of stimulus material, encoding-retrieval overlap may not be a universal organizing principle of neural correlates of memory.

Equivalent activation of the hippocampus by face-face and face-laugh paired associate learning and recognition

The human hippocampus is known to play an important role in relational memory. Both patient lesion studies and functional-imaging studies have shown that it is involved in the encoding and retrieval from memory of arbitrary associations. Two recent patient lesion studies, however, have found dissociations between spared and impaired memory within the domain of relational memory. Recognition of associations between information of the same kind (e.g., two faces) was spared, whereas recognition of associations between information of different kinds (e.g., face-name or face-voice associations) was impaired by hippocampal lesions. Thus, recognition of associations between information of the same kind may not be mediated by the hippocampus. Few imaging studies have directly compared activation at encoding and recognition of associations between same and different types of information. Those that have have shown mixed findings and been open to alternative interpretation. We used fMRI to compare hippocampal activation while participants studied and later recognized face-face and face-laugh paired associates. We found no differences in hippocampal activation between our two types of stimulus materials during either study or recognition. Study of both types of paired associate activated the hippocampus bilaterally, but the hippocampus was not activated by either condition during recognition. Our findings suggest that the human hippocampus is normally engaged to a similar extent by study and recognition of associations between information of the same kind and associations between information of different kinds.

Hostile and Hardened? An Experimental Study on (De-)Sensitization to Violence and Suffering Through Playing Video Games

This study tests whether playing violent video games leads to desensitization and increased cardiovascular responding. In a laboratory experiment, 42 men spent 20 min playing either a high- or low-violence version of a “first-person shooter” game. Arousal (heart rate, respiration rate) was measured continuously. After playing the game, emotional responses to aversive and aggressive stimuli - pictures from Lang, Bradley, and Cuthbert’s (1999) International Affective Picture System - were assessed with self-ratings and physiological measurement (skin conductance). Results showed no differences in the judgments of emotional responses to the stimuli. However, different effects of game violence emerged in the physiological reactions to the different types of stimulus material. Participants in the high-violence condition showed significantly weaker reactions (desensitization) to aversive stimuli and reacted significantly more strongly (sensitization) to aggressive cues. No support was found for the arousal hypothesis. Post-hoc analyses are used to discuss possible moderating influences of gaming experience and player’s trait aggressiveness in terms of the General Aggression Model ( Anderson & Bushman, 2001 ) and the Downward Spiral Model ( Slater, Henry, Swaim, & Anderson, 2003 ).

Crossmodal neuroimaging of object-related integration in subcortical structures of the human brain

Event Abstract Back to Event Crossmodal neuroimaging of object-related integration in subcortical structures of the human brain M. J. Naumer1*, Y. Yalachkov1, A. Polony1, L. Ratz1, G. Hein2, O. Doehrmann1, G. Van De Ven V3 and J. Kaiser1 1 Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Germany 2 University of Zürich, Switzerland 3 Maastricht University, Netherlands Based on invasive electrophysiology it has been recently hypothesized that in addition to the superior colliculus (SC) further subcortical structures (i.e. the cerebellum, the thalamus, and the basal ganglia) might play a critical role in multisensory integration. So far, however, non-invasive evidence in humans for such subcortical involvement is almost completely lacking. In a series of fMRI experiments, we first searched for visuo-tactile (VT) integration regions employing the so-called Max-criterion (VT>max[V, T]), while we manipulated the side of active touch (left vs. right hand) and the degree of VT (orientation or identity) congruency. The results showed robust, bilateral VT integration effects in the lateral cerebellum that were substantially more pronounced during stimulation of the ipsilateral as compared to the contralateral hand and independent of VT congruency or the type of stimulus material (i.e familiar natural versus unfamiliar artificial). Additional tests for audio-visuo-tactile (AVT) integration in this region showed no significant effects indicating that the role of the lateral cerebellum might be specific to VT integration. In complementary analyses of these fMRI data sets we employed spatial independent component analysis (sICA). SICA is a multivariate, data-driven analysis technique that decomposes fMRI data into spatially independent components, which can be interpreted as functional connectivity maps. Selection of components of interest for further analysis was done by visual inspection. Among the task-related independent components (ICs) of the AVT experiment three apparently unisensory ICs were most robustly detected. Each of these ICs suggested a network of functionally connected cortical and subcortical regions processing auditory, visual, and somatosensory-motor information, respectively. Combining these IC-maps provided a surprisingly clear parcellation of the sensorimotor thalamus in its medial geniculate (MGN), lateral geniculate (LGN), and ventral posterior (VPN) nuclei. The same subjects also participated in two independent audio-visual (AV) and VT experiments. These data enabled explicit testing of the hypothesized thalamic involvement in multisensory integration. Our results indicate AV integration effects (Max-criterion: AV>max[A, V]) in bilateral MGN (but not LGN) and similar VT integration effects in both LGN and VPN. Interestingly, these latter effects were only detectable when our subjects grasped the objects with their non-dominant (left) hand, which suggests that VT integration effects in distinct nuclei of the human thalamus are most pronounced when unimodal (haptic) stimulation is least effective, in accordance with the inverse-effectiveness rule. Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Turkey, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Symposium 3: Neural basis of multisensory integration Citation: Naumer MJ, Yalachkov Y, Polony A, Ratz L, Hein G, Doehrmann O, Van De Ven V G and Kaiser J (2008). Crossmodal neuroimaging of object-related integration in subcortical structures of the human brain. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.020 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 27 Nov 2008; Published Online: 27 Nov 2008. * Correspondence: M. J Naumer, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, M.J.Naumer@med.uni-frankfurt.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers M. J Naumer Y. Yalachkov A. Polony L. Ratz G. Hein O. Doehrmann G. Van De Ven V J. Kaiser Google M. J Naumer Y. Yalachkov A. Polony L. Ratz G. Hein O. Doehrmann G. Van De Ven V J. Kaiser Google Scholar M. J Naumer Y. Yalachkov A. Polony L. Ratz G. Hein O. Doehrmann G. Van De Ven V J. Kaiser PubMed M. J Naumer Y. Yalachkov A. Polony L. Ratz G. Hein O. Doehrmann G. Van De Ven V J. Kaiser Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

An Individual Difference Analysis of False Recognition

Two studies with moderately large samples of participants were conducted to examine correlates of false recognition. In Experiment 1 false recognition of words was found to be a robust and reliable phenomenon at the level of individuals, and the tendency to classify critical lures as old was more closely related to the correct classification of old items as old than to the incorrect classification of unrelated new items as old. False recognition was not significantly related to any of the cognitive abilities that were assessed, including episodic memory, or to other factors such as personality and chronic mood. In Experiment 2 these findings were extended to include dot pattern and face stimuli. Although measures of veridical memory were significantly correlated across the different types of stimulus material, false recognition rates only had modest and generally not significant correlations, which suggests that the tendency to produce false recognitions may be a task-specific characteristic of individuals.

Performance of Patients Using Different Cochlear Implant Systems: Effects of Input Dynamic Range

To determine, for patients who had identical levels of performance on a monosyllabic word test presented in quiet, whether device differences would affect performance when tested with other materials and in other test conditions. For Experiment 1, from a test population of 76 patients, three groups (N = 13 in each group) were created. Patients in the first group used the CII Bionic Ear behind-the-ear (BTE) speech processor, patients in the second group used the Esprit3G BTE speech processor, and patients in the third group used the Tempo+ BTE speech processor. The patients in each group were matched on (i) monosyllabic word scores in quiet, (ii) age at testing, (iii) duration of deafness, and (iv) experience with their device. Performance of the three groups was compared on a battery of tests of speech understanding, voice discrimination, and melody recognition. In Experiments 2 (N = 10) and 3 (N = 10) the effects of increasing input dynamic range in the 3G and CII devices, respectively, was assessed with sentence material presented at conversational levels in quiet, conversational levels in noise, and soft levels in quiet. Experiment 1 revealed that patients fit with the CII processor achieved higher scores than Esprit3G and Tempo+ patients on tests of vowel recognition. CII and Tempo+ patients achieved higher scores than Esprit3G patients on difficult sentence material presented in noise at +10 and +5 dB SNR. CII patients achieved higher scores than Esprit3G patients on difficult sentence material presented at a soft level (54 dB SPL). Experiment 2 revealed that increasing input dynamic range in the Esprit3G device had (i) no effect at conversational levels in quiet, (ii) degraded performance in noise, and (iii) improved performance at soft levels. Experiment 3 revealed that increasing input dynamic range in the CII device improved performance in all conditions. Differences in implant design can affect patient performance, especially in difficult listening situations. Input dynamic range and the method by which compression is implemented appear to be the major factors that account for our results.

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ERP components reflecting stimulus identification: contrasting the recognition potential and the early repetition effect (N250r)

The recognition potential component (RP) in the event-related brain potential (ERP) appears during rapid stream stimulation and has been related to the activation of word form or word meaning. The early repetition effect (ERE/N250r) is observed in repetition priming designs and has been linked to the access to stored representations of the structure of familiar faces and names. Because of the apparent similarities in latency, topography and theoretical interpretation we compared the RP and ERE/N250r within the same rapid stream stimulation design and for the same type of stimulus material: names and faces of famous persons and names and pictures of common objects. Contrasting with RP, the ERE/N250r occurred later and differed in both scalp topography and amplitude patterns across stimulus conditions. Therefore, the ERE/N250r seems to reflect a separate and content-specific stage of information processing, following the RP, which appears to reflect domain-general processes of structural analyses.

Examining the Relation Between Visual Imagery and Spatial Ability Tests

Research evidence indicates that self-report imagery ability is psychometrically distinct from objective, spatial test measures. One hypothesis put forward in the literature to explain this finding is that the nature of the stimulus is important. The aim of this article was to examine the relation between spatial abilities and measures of visual imagery obtained using different types of stimulus material. The main finding was that imagery tasks that required the mental synthesis or transformation of visual forms, such as alphanumeric characters and simple geometric shapes, correlated strongly with tests of spatial ability. In contrast, images of familiar items retrieved from long-term memory did not correlate with spatial test performance. It is argued that tasks that better control the stimuli imagined and the standards used to rate the quality of the image provide more objective measures of imagery ability. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Direct Comparison of Prefrontal Cortex Regions Engaged by Working and Long-Term Memory Tasks

Neuroimaging studies have suggested the involvement of ventrolateral, dorsolateral, and frontopolar prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions in both working (WM) and long-term memory (LTM). The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to directly compare whether these PFC regions show selective activation associated with one memory domain. In a within-subjects design, subjects performed the n-back WM task (two-back condition) as well as LTM encoding (intentional memorization) and retrieval (yes–no recognition) tasks. Additionally, each task was performed with two different types of stimulus materials (familiar words, unfamiliar faces) in order to determine the influence of material-type vs task-type. A bilateral region of dorsolateral PFC (DL-PFC; BA 46/9) was found to be selectively activated during the two-back condition, consistent with a hypothesized role for this region in active maintenance and/or manipulation of information in WM. Left frontopolar PFC (FP-PFC) was also found to be selectively engaged during the two-back. Although FP-PFC activity has been previously associated with retrieval from LTM, no frontopolar regions were found to be selectively engaged by retrieval. Finally, lateralized ventrolateral PFC (VL-PFC) regions were found to be selectively engaged by material-type, but uninfluenced by task-type. These results highlight the importance of examining PFC activity across multiple memory domains, both for functionally differentiating PFC regions (e.g., task-selectivity vs material-selectivity in DL-PFC and VL-PFC) and for testing the applicability of memory domain-specific theories (e.g., FP-PFC in LTM retrieval).

Working memory in dorsolateral frontal cortex

It is widely held that the frontal cortex plays a critical role in certain aspects of both spatial and non-spatial working memory. The prevailing view in recent years has been that there are domain-specific subdivisions within dorsal and ventral regions of the prefrontal cortex, which subserve working memory for spatial and non-spatial information, respectively. However, Owen et al. have now used functional magnetic resonance imaging to demonstrate that performance of such tasks involves identical regions of the lateral prefrontal cortex when all factors unrelated to the type of stimulus material are appropriately controlled[1xFunctional organization of spatial and nonspatial memory processing within the human lateral frontal cortex. Owen, A.M. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 1998; 95: 7721–7726Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (263)See all References[1]. Two similar tasks, one involving the short-term retention and manipulation of spatial information and the other involving non-spatial visual patterns both activated the mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex in six subjects. These data provide evidence that spatial and non-spatial working memory might not be mediated by dorsal and ventral regions, respectively, of the frontal lobe, as widely assumed, and support the alternative notion that specific regions of the lateral frontal cortex make identical executive functional contributions to working memory.

Differential effects of aging on memory for content and context: a meta-analysis.

The authors reviewed the evidence of age differences in episodic memory for content of a message and the context associated with it. Specifically, the authors tested a hypothesis that memory for context is more vulnerable to aging than memory for content. In addition, the authors inquired whether effort at encoding and retrieval and type of stimulus material moderate the magnitude of age differences in both memory domains. The results of the meta-analysis of 46 studies confirmed the main hypothesis: Age differences in context memory are reliably greater than those in memory for content. Tasks that required greater effort during retrieval yielded larger age differences in content but not in context memory. The greatest magnitude of age differences in context memory was observed for those contextual features that were more likely to have been encoded independently from content. Possible mechanisms that may underlie age differences in context memory-attentional deficit, reduced working memory capacity, and failure of inhibitory processing are discussed.