title: Aging, eye movements, and object-location memory.
abstract: This study investigated whether "intentional" instructions could improve older adults' object memory and object-location memory about a scene by promoting object-oriented viewing. Eye movements of younger and older adults were recorded while they viewed a photograph depicting 12 household objects in a cubicle with or without the knowledge that memory about these objects and their locations would be tested (intentional vs. incidental encoding). After viewing, participants completed recognition and relocation tasks. Both instructions and age affected viewing behaviors and memory. Relative to incidental instructions, intentional instructions resulted in more accurate memory about object identity and object-location binding, but did not affect memory accuracy about overall positional configuration. More importantly, older adults exhibited more object-oriented viewing in the intentional than incidental condition, supporting the environmental support hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom. sis@soton.ac.uk
authors.forename: Shui-I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Katie L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Meadmore
authors.forename: Simon P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Liversedge
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult