The Effects of Aging on Associative Learning and Memory Retrieval in Causal Judgment

<p>Research has shown that detecting and judging causal relationships requires associative learning and memory. Retrospective revaluation of causal cues requires associative memory (Aitken, Larkin, & Dickinson, 2001) to bind multiple cues together and use these associations to retrieve unseen cues for revaluation of their associative value. The difficulty that older adults experience with respect to retrospective revaluation could occur because of their deficit in associative binding and retrieval (Mutter, Atchley, & Plumlee, 2012). Like retrospective revaluation, blocking requires cue – outcome associative learning, but unlike retrospective revaluation, blocking does not require binding two cues together nor does it require using the resulting association between these cues for retrieval. Older adults display no deficit in blocking (Hannah, Allan, & Young, 2012; Holder & Mutter, in submission). To assess the effects of aging on associative learning and memory in causal judgment, this study examined age effects in retrospective revaluation and blocking using an allergy scenario in a streamed-trial task (Hannah, Crump, Allan, & Siegel, 2009; Hannah et al., 2012). This study found that older and younger adults both displayed blocking effects, which supports past research. Additionally, it was found that older and younger adults displayed retrospective revaluation in working memory. The ability for older adults to display retrospective revaluation in working memory is a new finding. It suggests that there may be a decrement in associative long-term memory, but associative processes in working memory may be intact.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Psychological Sciences

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Arnold, Jessica Parks

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sharon Mutter (Director), Diane Lickenbrock, and Lance Hahn

• retrospective revaluation
• associative binding
• retrieval
• Cognition and Perception
• Cognitive Psychology
• Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1540

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-2539