title: Second thoughts versus second looks: an age-related deficit in reflectively refreshing just-activated information.
abstract: Age-related deficits in memory are greater as encoding and retrieval tasks require more reflective (self-generated or executive) processing. One problem in developing more specific models of age-related changes in cognition is that the tasks studied tend to be complex and vary in the combinations of component cognitive processes they recruit. Here we report an age-related deficit in one of the most elementary, but critical, components of reflection: refreshing a just-activated representation. Impairment in such a process potentially has a wide-ranging impact on all higher-order cognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA. marcia.johnson@yale.edu
authors.forename: Marcia K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Reeder
authors.forename: Carol L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Raye
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D006801:Humans; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011897:Random Allocation