Implicit spatial contextual learning in healthy aging.
Three experiments investigated the aging of implicit spatial and spatiotemporal context learning in 2 tasks. In contextual cuing, people learn to use repeated spatial configurations to facilitate search for a target, whereas in higher order serial learning, they learn to use subtle sequence regularities to respond more quickly and accurately to a series of events. Results reveal a dissociation; overall contextual cuing is spared in healthy aging, whereas higher order sequence learning is impaired in the same individuals. This finding suggests that these 2 forms of implicit learning rely on different neural substrates that age differently; the results are also consistent with recent evidence that fronto-striatal circuits are particularly susceptible to decline in health aging.
Howard
James H
JH
Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA. howard@cua.edu
Howard
Darlene V
DV
Dennis
Nancy A
NA
Yankovich
Helen
H
Vaidya
Chandan J
CJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001364:Awareness; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception