title: Synergistic effects of encoding strategy and context salience on associative memory in older adults.
abstract: Older adults' deficits in memory for context and memory for inter-item associations are often assumed to be related, yet typically are examined in separate experiments. The present study combined associative recognition and list discrimination into a single task with conditions that varied in terms of item, pair, and context information, and independently manipulated context salience and encoding strategy between subjects in order to examine their effects on memory for associative information in young and older adults. Older adults' memory for pairs was found to be less affected than that of young adults by manipulations of context and associative information, but the age difference in context effects on pair memory was influenced by an interaction of encoding strategy and context salience. The results provide novel evidence that older adults' deficits in associative memory involve interactions between context and inter-item associations.
authors: Department of Psychology & Neuroscience Program.
authors: Amy A
authors: AA
authors: Overman
authors: Joseph D W
authors: JD
authors: Stephens
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult