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Abstract
Objectives: Working memory functions and their relations with affective auditory factors, have not been extensively investigated in aging yet.
Method: In this study, younger and older participants completed a classical working memory test (a running working memory task) pronounced by three different voices. In particular, in Experiment 1 the natural voices of a 3-year-old child, a 26-year-old young adult and an 86-year-old older adult were used for task presentation. In Experiment 2 stimuli were morphed in order to better control for sound properties across the three voices.
Results: Results showed that working memory increased for older adults compared to younger adults when the task was presented with natural voices and especially so when the task was presented in a child's voice. However, the child-voice effect disappeared with morphed voices.
Conclusion: Data confirm the importance of studying the relationship between auditory features and emotional variations as a possible practical means of reducing typical age-related working memory deficits.
Notes
Note: Standard deviations are in parentheses. The MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) is from Folstein et al. (Citation1975): maximum score is 30; the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affective Scale) is from Watson et al. (Citation1988); the phonemic fluency test is from Mondini et al. (Citation2003): mean score according to age: from 8 to 10. The digit span is from Mondini et al. (Citation2003).
Statistically significant results between younger and older adults (p < .05) are represented by an asterisk. Older adults from Exp. 1 were less educated than older adults from Exp. 2 (p < .05).
Note: Maximum score for the running memory test is 14.