https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-6821
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ABSTRACT
The main goal of this study was to explore the organizational strategies used by younger and older adults when encoding words, using eye-tracking. Participants had to learn a set of organizable words and then a set of non-organizable words, each presented on a single display. Participants were then asked to recall the words of each set in the order in which they came to their mind. Hence, the participants’ encoding strategies revealed by eye-tracking could be directly related to their subsequent memory performance. The results confirmed the detrimental impact of aging on memory and the weaker use of organizational strategies by older adults during the recall phase. The eye-tracking data showed that when they encode the words, older adults do not look at them for as long as younger adults, probably because of slower eye movements. They also revealed that compared to younger adults, older adults were much less able to adapt their word scanning strategy according to whether the words to encode were organizable or not. Finally, the relationships that were found between the recall scores and the eye-tracking data suggest that the eye movement pattern at learning can predict how people will recall the words.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Elisabeth Grimaud for her help in collecting data, Jean Pylouster for his technical assistance in the analysis of the eye movement data and all the participants for their time and cooperation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
ORCID
Lina Guerrero – Sastoque http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-6821
Notes
1 Despite the difference in recordings’ validity, the precision of eye movement data was similar for both groups of participants.