Use of multimodal stimuli to facilitate associative memory in older adults

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Research suggests that sensory loss common to older adults is strongly correlated with cognitive decline (Lindenberger & Baltes, 1994; Baltes and Lindenberger, 1997). One potential explanation for this decline is the cognitive permeation hypothesis, which suggests that as increased cognitive resources are devoted to deciphering stimuli, fewer are leftover for cognitive tasks (Lindenberger, Marsiske & Baltes, 2000). Naveh-Benjamin and Kilb (2014) suggested that this may be one cause of the associative memory deficit in older adults (Naveh-Benjamin, 2000), demonstrating that the associative deficit could be simulated with sensory degradation in younger adults. The present studies attempted to extend these results by using multimodal stimuli to improve perception in older adults in order to reduce their associative deficit. In Experiment 1 older and younger adults were presented with unrelated word pairs in visual, audio, and audiovisual modalities, with mixed sensory degradation levels within a given block, and then given item and associative memory tests. Experiment 2 used the same methods but with blocked sensory degradation presentation. The results were mixed with Experiment 1 providing evidence of an audiovisual benefit in the associative test under degradation across age groups. Experiment 2 failed to replicate these results, though there is some evidence that the prolonged stimuli degradation in the study phase, resulting from the blocked conditions, affected performance.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychological sciences (MU)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Missouri--Columbia

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Decker, Reed Allen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

Statement dc:rights

• Access to files is limited to the campuses of the University of Missouri with SSO login.

Language dc:language.iso

eng, English

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/70091

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/70091