Cross-situational statistical learning in younger and older adults

ABSTRACT

Research investigating statistical learning, the process of tracking regularities in the environment, in older adults has been limited; with existing studies suggesting there are age-related declines. We aim to further understand older adults’ statistical learning abilities using a cross-situational statistical learning paradigm in which learners map novel words to novel objects. In Experiment 1, we manipulated task difficulty and found an overall age deficit but no interaction between age and difficulty. In Experiment 2, after extended practice with a first set of object-word mappings, learners could remap a subset of previously learned words to novel objects. Based on hyper-binding, older adults might be more willing to remap previously learned words to novel objects. However, despite overall poorer learning, older adults were actually less likely to remap. Even though older adults may have an associative memory deficit, learned associations are not more weakly bound for older relative to younger adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-situational statistical learning
• associative memory deficit

Acknowledgments

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, under Award Number F32HD101216 to FB. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Health. We wish to thank research assistants in the Cognitive Aging and Neuroscience Lab for their help with recruitment and data collection.

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any interests to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [F32HD101216].