Effects of attention on the precision of neural and mnemonic representations in healthy ageing
type: CreativeWork
description: Episodic memory is an integral cognitive function, and its decline is a hallmark symptom of cognitive ageing. Amongst the various memory processes, it is well established that ageing particularly impacts recollection. Emerging studies using sensitive behavioural and imaging techniques indicate that ageing compromises the precision or fidelity of memory representations. The degradation of both mnemonic and neural fidelity is thought to contribute to age-related changes to episodic memory. Further, episodic memory does not operate in isolation, rather selective attention influences the encoding and retrieval of information that are relevant to current task-goals. This thesis explores the impact of age-related attentional dysregulation on associative binding and the fidelity of associative memories at encoding. I also explore the effects of selective attention and non-invasive stimulation on age-related retrieval precision using continuous-report tasks. Chapter 2 examines the hyper-binding effect, an age-specific phenomenon exhibited as older adults forming excessive associations between task-relevant and -irrelevant information. This effect has reportedly been found when distractors involved task-irrelevant words. The results from this experiment showed that the hyper-binding effect extends to perceptually rich (famous faces and scenes) distractors. Using a two-alternative forced-choice test, older adults were negatively impacted by previous exposure of distractors as evinced by lower recognition for rearranged pairs relative to intact pairs. However, using a cued-recall test, an age-invariant memory advantage was found for intact pairs relative to rearranged pairs. Extending from Chapter 2, Chapter 3 investigated the neural correlates of distractibility and whether poor attentional control modulates the neural fidelity of associative memory at encoding. The findings revealed that older adults were susceptible to interference, indicated by reduced activation in inhibi…
abstract: Episodic memory is an integral cognitive function, and its decline is a hallmark symptom of cognitive ageing. Amongst the various memory processes, it is well established that ageing particularly impacts recollection. Emerging studies using sensitive behavioural and imaging techniques indicate that ageing compromises the precision or fidelity of memory representations. The degradation of both mnemonic and neural fidelity is thought to contribute to age-related changes to episodic memory. Further, episodic memory does not operate in isolation, rather selective attention influences the encoding and retrieval of information that are relevant to current task-goals. This thesis explores the impact of age-related attentional dysregulation on associative binding and the fidelity of associative memories at encoding. I also explore the effects of selective attention and non-invasive stimulation on age-related retrieval precision using continuous-report tasks. Chapter 2 examines the hyper-binding effect, an age-specific phenomenon exhibited as older adults forming excessive associations between task-relevant and -irrelevant information. This effect has reportedly been found when distractors involved task-irrelevant words. The results from this experiment showed that the hyper-binding effect extends to perceptually rich (famous faces and scenes) distractors. Using a two-alternative forced-choice test, older adults were negatively impacted by previous exposure of distractors as evinced by lower recognition for rearranged pairs relative to intact pairs. However, using a cued-recall test, an age-invariant memory advantage was found for intact pairs relative to rearranged pairs. Extending from Chapter 2, Chapter 3 investigated the neural correlates of distractibility and whether poor attentional control modulates the neural fidelity of associative memory at encoding. The findings revealed that older adults were susceptible to interference, indicated by reduced activation in inhibi…
author: Abdurahman, Ayat
language: eng
keywords: Ageing, Cognitive decline, Memory, Attention, Inhibitory deficit
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/1aebe016-8720-4c9f-b563-05280291a0fa/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-01-14
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:07Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.122142