title: Age differences in working memory--the roles of storage and selective access.
abstract: Twenty-four young (23 years) and 24 old (71 years) adults performed arithmetic tasks with working memory loads ranging from 1 to 4. Age groups were equivalent in mean accuracy and speed of arithmetic operations under minimal working memory load, but old adults were slower than young with memory demands >1. Access to a new object in working memory as the basis of computation required additional time. This object-switching cost increased with increases in memory demand, but was unaffected by age, indicating that old adults have no deficit in selective access to working memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany. ko@ry.uni-potsdam.de
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oberauer
authors.forename: Mirko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wendland
authors.forename: Reinhold
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kliegl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008568:Memory; D011340:Problem Solving