12. Memory In older adults

Explain suggestibility as it relates to memory.

A major source of false memories. Misleading information affecting the memory of an event.

Explain the inhibition theory.

Ability to block out relevant stimulation decreases with age so the memory declines seen in old age are a consequence of poor attentional processes. Inhibition also means the ability to suppress retrieval of irrelevant information.

Describe the processing speed as related to age decline.

Age-related declines are caused because older people's cognitive processing does not work as fast as that of younger adults.

______ theory argues that older adults do not have a good ability to block out irrelevant stimulation. Ans: Inhibition

Inhibition

Explain recall versus recognition in memory.

Recall involves ability to produce correct answer by generating it from retrieval. Recognition requires one to match a presented stimulus to one's memory of the original.

From the metamemory perspective, the increased rate of ______ among older adults is adaptive because it allows them to make accurate predictions about what they will recall.

TOTs

Describe source memory as it refers to misattribution.

The ability of an individual to remember from whom or where (the source) he or she learned something.

What are white matter tracts?

The bundles of neurons that connect one area of the brain to another

Explain directed forgetting.

The inhibition in memory that occurs when people are asked to forget some information but no other information.

What is semantic memory?

The neurocognitive memory system that encodes, stores, and retrieves information concerning knowledge of the world.

Explain episodic memory.

The neurocognitive memory system that encodes, stores, and retrieves memories of our personal individual experiences.

A power demonstration of the success of inhibition theory to explain age-related memory declines comes from: a. irrelevant and distracting words embedded in otherwise meaningful sentences. b. focusing on content leading to a stronger theory. c. process-oriented classrooms information. d. encoded working memory.

a

From the metamemory perspective, the increased rate of TOTs among older adults is: a. adaptive because it allows them to make accurate predictions about what they will recall. b. an ever-increasing problem that predicts long-term dementia. c. a reflection of deepening metamemory problems in old age. d. simply a function of the likelihood that older adults show more false memories

a

Göthe, Oberauer, and Kliegl (2007) compared younger and older adults in two tasks. One task was a visual-motor task in which participants had to mentally track the location of an arrow as it moved to various marked locations on a computer screen. The second task was a simple numerical task, that is, to add a number to a pre-existing sum every time the participant heard a tone. They found that: a. older adults learned each task as well as the younger adults did, but had more difficulties when required to do the two tasks simultaneously. b. older adults learned both tasks at slower rates than did the younger adults. c. older adults were impaired on the visual-motor task because it requires the visual-spatial sketchpad, but not the numerical task. d. older adults outperformed the younger adults because they were better able to allocate resources.

a

Older adults, relative to younger adults, a. have more difficulty recognizing melodies when they are played at a fast tempo than when they are played at a slower tempo. b. have less difficulty recognizing melodies when they are played at a fast tempo than when they are played at a slower tempo. c. show no differences in music recognition. d. have more difficulty recognizing melodies at all tempos.

a

Research on metamemory monitoring and control suggests that older adults may: a. show selective deficits in control behavior relative to younger adults. b. be as good as younger adults in both monitoring and control. c. show deficits in monitoring relative to younger adults. d. remain unaffected by the negative effects of metamemory declines.

a

Research on multi-tasking and memory supports the contention that: a. all adults show lower memory performance while multi-tasking, but it is especially acute in older adults. b. only older adults show lower memory performance while multi-tasking. c. only younger adults show lower memory performance while multi-tasking. d. older adults should not listen to books-on-tape while driving.

a

Research on the "use it or lose it hypothesis" suggests that: a. education is a buffer against age-related declines in memory. b. older adults must constantly restudy vocabulary in order not to forget it. c. highly stressed adults maintain memory performance into older age than do more low stress individuals. d. older adults suffer from deficits in sensory processing which paradoxically can improve memory for source events.

a

Studies of the beliefs that older adults have about memory show that: a. older adults believe that their memories are declining. b. older adults do not believe the declines that are taking place in their memory are real. c. no generalizations can be made about a group as diverse as older adults. d. only adults with anosognosia become aware of their memory decline

a

Which area of the brain has been shown to actually shrink as people age? a. the hippocampus. b. the pons. c. the thyroid nucleus. d. the dorsolateral postfrontal region.

a

Which of the following is a helpful hint for older adults trying to improve their memory? a. make metamemory judgments and use the feedback from them to guide learning b. read through material much faster so that you can learn faster c. play exciting music to keep your heart rate fast so that you can learn at a faster rate d. try to commit everything to memory without writing it down Ans: a

a

Which of the following statements are true? a. Older adults often show less negative correlations between their judgments of learning and their allocation of study time. b. Older adults show an advantage in metacognitive control relative to younger adults. c. Older adults typically have a deficit in theory of mind. d. Slower reaction times are correlated with higher judgments of

a

Which of the following statements is true? a. Older adults are more susceptible to misinformation effects than younger adults. b. Younger adults are more susceptible to misinformation effects than older adults. c. Older adults are more accurate witnesses than younger adults. d. Younger witnesses are more accurate witnesses than older adults.

a

Which of these is a more of a potential source of false memories in older adults than it is in younger adults? a. source monitoring failures b. encoding specificity effects c. metamemory errors d. lexical decision failures

a

Which theory states that age-related declines are caused because the older person's cognitive processing does not work as quickly as those of younger adults? a. processing speed framework b. metamemory accuracy theory c. inhibition theory d. source monitoring framework

a

With respect to memory accuracy, investigators must be careful not to make: a. suggestive statements to their older witnesses. b. suggestive statements to their younger witnesses. c. more revealing statements to relative statements to d. simultaneously more and less accurate statements relative to younger adults.

a

With respect to memory accuracy, older adults are: a. equally accurate relative to younger adults. b. more accurate relative to younger adults. c. less accurate relative to younger adults. d. simultaneously more and less accurate relative to younger adults.

a

Studies examining how older adults make judgments of learning (JOLs) find that there is no difference in ______ of JOLs between younger and older adults.

accuracy

Castel et al. (2012) show that, as people age, they direct their cognitive processes in more value-directed ways. This means that: a. older adults have better memory for financial issues than do younger adults. b. older adults control their learning in such a way as to master the most important or high-value information. c. older adults are impaired in memory for moral values. d. all of the above are true.

b

In directed forgetting studies, a. older adults forget everything so it is hard to measure directed forgetting. b. older adults have a harder time blocking out the to-be-forgotten items, leading to better recall of to-be-forgotten items. c. older adults do better at directed forgetting because of their slow processing speed. d. older adults forget more of the to-be-forgotten items than do younger adults.

b

In lexical decision tasks, older adults: a. show greater accuracy than younger adults. b. make slower decisions even though their accuracy is equivalent to that of younger adults. c. show no differences in speed or accuracy relative to younger adults. d. are more likely to recall the words on the list when called upon to do so, even though their performance on the task is less accurate than younger adults.

b

In recall and recognition tests, a. older adults have more difficulties with recognition tests, relative to younger adults. b. older adults have more difficulties with recall tests, relative to younger adults. c. younger adults have more difficulties with recall tests, relative to older adults. d. younger adults prefer recognition tests, whereas older adults prefer recall tests.

b

In studies in which general knowledge is tested (politics, history, sports, etc.), a. younger adults are likely to recall more such facts. b. older adults have had more time to accumulate more knowledge. c. differences cannot be predicted on age alone. d. younger adults learn faster, so they can recall more semantic information.

b

Research shows that: a. older adults do not, in general, believe that their memory can or will decline. b. most older adults believe that their memory abilities have declined. c. some older adults conflate their belief system with their retrieval dynamics. d. older adults are more likely to have strong beliefs about memory efficiency than younger adults.

b

Shimamura et al. (1995) found that older college professors: a. showed no declines in memory performance. b. showed no declines in story recall, but did show declines in working memory. c. showed declines in lexical memory, but no declines in episodic memory. d. showed equivalent declines to people with less education.

b

Vannucci et al. (2012) found that false identifications of objects led to false memories in older adults even when the older adults received feedback as to what the object was initially. This suggests that: a. older adults have perceptual deficits rather than mnemonic deficits. b. older adults forget the source of the correct information (i.e., the feedback) and instead remember the initial misperceived source. c. mnemonic deficits in old age are compounded by failing perceptual systems. d. older adults are more suggestible and thus less likely to believe the feedback

b

Which of the following statements about brain changes in older adults is true? a. There are no visible differences between the brains of older and younger adults. b. Declines in the size of the pre-frontal lobe are associated with declines in memory performance in older adults. c. Brains continue to grow throughout the lifespan. d. Declines in the size of the occipital lobe are associated with declines in memory performance in older adults.

b

Which of these is not a reason why memory researchers use judgments of learning (JOLs) to examine metamemory? a. JOLs have also been shown to be highly predictive of study behavior. b. JOLs bias metamemory towards older adults. c. People use JOLs to allocate their study efforts to the difficult or to the easy items, depending on study constraints. d. JOLs are also directly related to study behaviors in the real world.

b

Because older adults tend to recall less items in paired associate learning, their JOLs tend to be: a. less accurate than younger adults. b. more accurate than younger adults c. lower numerically than younger adults. d. higher numerically than younger adults.

c

However, McDaniel and Bugg (2012) argue that the assumptions of memory rehabilitation are incorrect. Following from a multiple memory systems perspective, they assert that: a. specific memory training will enhance all aspects of memory performance. b. specific memory training has no effect in older adults. c. specific memory training may enhance that particular form of memory in that older adult, but will have limited generalizability to tasks that tap other memory systems d. Because memory rehabilitation is still not fully developed, no firm conclusions can yet be made.

c

In a famous study, Snowdon (2003) tracked a group of nuns as they grew older. The study found that: a. nuns who had entered the order later in life tended to have more health-related problems. b. older nuns remembered more scriptural verses than did younger nuns. c. the nuns who spent more time engaged in mentally demanding exercises such as crossword puzzles maintained cognitive function to an older age. d. the nuns who spent more time working on physical tasks such as sewing showed an increased likelihood of developing Alzheimer's Disease.

c

One view is that declines in memory in aging occur because: a. older adults do not need to have as strong a memory system as younger adults. b. older adults improve with respect to inhibition, which causes memory to decline. c. information processing occurs more slowly. d. their metamemory accuracy shifts from a positive correlation to a negative one.

c

Research in working memory suggests that: a. older adults lose working memory altogether by the time they enter their 90s. b. older adults show deficits only in tasks that tap the visuo-spatial sketchpad. c. older adults show weaker performance in digit span tasks than do younger adults. d. older adults show no differences when compared to younger adults.

c

Research on aging and TOTs shows that: a. it is a myth that older adults experience more TOTs than younger adults. b. older adults experience fewer TOTs than do younger adults. c. older adults experience more TOTs than do younger adults. d. TOTs are seldom measurable among older adults.

c

Rick is 78-year-old truck driver and his friend Bob is a 24-year-old truck driver. Who is more likely to be at risk when using his cell phone while driving? a. Bob, because he is a less experienced driver. b. Bob, because he is more likely to be having arguments with his spouse. c. Rick, because being older, he is less able to do two tasks simultaneously. d. Rick, because he is too old to be driving anyway.

c

Souchay and Isingrini examined the relation between JOLs and study time in both younger and older adults. Relative to the younger adults, older adults were more likely to: a. forget to study any of the items. b. restudy the most difficult items. c. restudy more easy items. d. restudy only those items about which they had not made JOLs.

c

The observation that older adults are less able to learn tasks simultaneously than younger adults suggests impairment in: a. visual-spatial sketchpad. b. phonological loop. c. central executive. d. working self.

c

The research on memory training shows that: a. older adults do not benefit from explicit training in memory improvement. b. only errorless learning works in older adults. c. older adults can improve their memory with memory training skills and exercises. d. relative to younger adults, older adults show decreases in memory performance after memory training.

c

When older adults misperceive an object, they are: a. more likely to show inattention blindness. b. less likely to show visual-auditory feedback. c. often forget the correction that led them to correctly identify the object. d. less likely to know the correct target name of the object than if they had correctly perceived initially.

c

Darowski et al. (2008) asked younger and older participants to read short texts. Some of these tests contained irrelevant and distracting words embedded in otherwise meaningful sentences. They found that: a. older adults process the sentences faster than young adults because of their preserved semantic system. b. there were no differences between older and younger adults because the task did not call for age-sensitive memory. c. younger adults and older adults alike were equally confused by the irrelevant material. d. older adults had more difficulties inhibiting the irrelevant material than did younger adults.

d

Inhibition theory argues that: a. older adults' memory declines because of fibrillary bundles in the hippocampus. b. older adults have better prospective memory than younger adults. c. older adults have better metamemory than younger adults. d. older adults do not have a good ability to block out irrelevant stimulation.

d

Marilena is 80-year-old, and plays tennis and competitive Scrabble. Relative to less active older adults, Marilena is: a. less likely to show cognitive declines. b. less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. c. still likely to show slower speed on working memory tasks. d. all of the above are true.

d

McQuirky and LaFunny (2025) asked older and younger adults to study the names and textures of a variety of cheeses. You would expect them to find: a. that memory for cheese is not affected by age. b. younger adults would be more distracted by the flavor of the cheeses than older adults. c. older adults would encode the cheese names faster than younger adults, but retrieve them more slowly. d. older adults would do as well as younger adults in name recognition studies, but do less well than younger adults in name recall studies.

d

Research on feeling of knowing suggests that: a. older adults have a deficit in feeling-of-knowing accuracy. b. younger adults have a deficit in feeling-of-knowing accuracy. c. older adults cannot make feeling of knowing judgments without also making simultaneous recall inferences. d. older adults show equivalent accuracy to younger adults on feeling of knowing tests.

d

Research on the efficacy of imagery mnemonics and older adults suggests that: a. imagery mnemonics cannot help older adults. b. imagery mnemonics benefit older adults more than they benefit younger adults. c. imagery mnemonics are counterproductive in older adults. d. imagery mnemonics can be useful in helping older adults learn new material.

d

Research suggests that, in some domains, older adults have been shown to have better memory skills. Which one of these domains fits that description? a. working memory b. encoding into long-term memory c. source monitoring d. metamemory

d

Studies examining how older adults make judgments of learning (JOLs) find that: a. older adults show impaired accuracy in making JOLs compared to younger adults. b. older adults' JOLs do not predict memory performance; the correlation between JOLs and recall is essentially zero. c. older adults show inflated magnitude of their judgments relative to younger adults. d. there is no difference in accuracy of JOLs between younger and older adults.

d

The observation that older adults use fewer chunking strategies than younger adults supports which view of the age-related declines in memory? a. declines in linguistic capacity b. declines in processing speed c. declines in inhibition d. declines in the strategic use of memory

d

Which of the following has NOT been advanced as an explanation for declines in memory performance in older adults? a. slower processing speed b. that older adults have problems inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. c. that older adults show a decline in the use of effective memory strategies. d. that older adults have impaired theory of mind.

d

Which of the following improve or are stable as people age normally? a. metamemory b. lexical memory c. semantic memory d. all of the above

d

Which one of these domains shows age-related declines? a. lexical memory b. implicit memory c. metamemory d. prospective memory

d

Because older adults tend to recall less items in paired associate learning, their JOLs tend to be ______ numerically than younger adults.

lower

When older adults ______ an object, they are often forget the correction that led them to correctly identify the object.

misperceive

Vannucci et al. (2012) found that false identifications of objects led to false memories in older adults even when the older adults received feedback as to what the object was initially. This suggests that older adults forget the source of the correct information (i.e., the feedback) and instead remember the initial ______ source.

misperceived

Souchay and Isingrini examined the relation between JOLs and study time in both younger and older adults. Relative to the younger adults, older adults were ______ likely to restudy more easy items.

more

Declines in the size of the ______ lobe are associated with declines in memory performance in older adults.

pre-frontal

The ______ memory domains show age-related declines.

prospective

Castel et al. (2012) show that, as people age, they direct their cognitive processes in more ______ ways. This means that older adults control their learning in such a way as to master the most important or high-value information.

value-directed