title: Rejecting familiar distracters during recognition in young adults with traumatic brain injury and in healthy older adults.
abstract: The most common cognitive complaint reported by healthy older adults and young adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is memory difficulties. We investigated the effects of normal aging and the long-term effects of TBI in young adults on the susceptibility to incorrectly endorse distracter information on a memory test. Prior to a study phase, participants viewed a "pre-exposure" list containing distracter words, presented once or three times, and half of the target study words. Subsequently, during the study phase, all target words were presented such that, across lists, study words were viewed either once or three times. On the recognition test, TBI and older adult participants were more likely to falsely endorse "pre-exposed" distracter words viewed three times as being from the target study list, compared to non-head-injured young controls. Normal aging and head injury in young may similarly compromise one's ability to reject highly familiar, but distracting, information during recognition. Older adult and TBI participants were also slower to complete the Trail Making task and had poorer output on a Digit Span task, suggesting these two populations share a deficit in executive function and working memory. Similar changes in frontal lobe function may underlie these shared cognitive deficits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. lozen@uwaterloo.ca
authors.forename: Lana J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ozen
authors.forename: Erin I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Skinner
authors.forename: Myra A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fernandes
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult