The influence of aging on attentional refreshing and articulatory rehearsal during working memory on later episodic memory performance

Abstract

We investigated age-related changes in two proposed mechanisms of maintenance in working memory, articulatory rehearsal, and attentional refreshing, by examining the consequences of manipulating the opportunity for each on delayed recall. Both experiments utilized modified operation span tasks to vary the opportunity for articulatory rehearsal (Experiment 1) and attentional refreshing opportunities (Experiment 2). In both experiments, episodic memory was tested for items that had been initially studied during the respective operation span task. Older adults' episodic memory benefited less from opportunities for refreshing than younger adults. In contrast, articulatory rehearsal opportunities did not influence episodic memory for either age group. The results suggest that attentional refreshing, and not articulatory rehearsal, is important during working memory in order to bind more accessible traces at later tests, which appears to be more deficient in older adults than younger adults.

Keywords:

• Working memory
• Episodic memory
• Aging
• Binding
• Attentional refreshing

Acknowledgments

I thank Matthew Rhodes for his helpful comments on this manuscript.

In loving memory of my graduate adviser, David P. McCabe, who died January 11, 2011.