Preprint · Jan 16, 2024
Age Differences in Verbatim and Gist Memory: The Effect of Acute Inhibitory Function Intervention
By Xu J
Age-related deficits in associative memory are primarily restricted to verbatim memory rather than to gist memory, partly because of the decreased ability to ignore irrelevant information during encoding. Previous studies of attentional distraction have indicated that verbatim memory is more susceptible to interference than gist memory in older adults. However, the specific effects of different types of interfering information on verbatim and gist memory as well as the potential benefits of inhibition interventions on memory in older adults remain unclear. In Experiment 1, 80 participants (40 younger and 40 older adults) studied scene-word pairs while attempting to inhibit interfering words during encoding. An immediate associative recognition memory test was performed, followed by a modified Stroop task to measure the inhibitory function. Experiment 2 included 66 older adults randomly assigned to either an inhibitory function intervention or a control group. The Flanker task was employed for acute inhibitory function intervention, and eye-tracking technology was used to record eye movement indicators. The results showed that older adults exhibited worse verbatim memory than younger adults did, with no significant differences in gist memory. Furthermore, gist memory, rather than verbatim memory, was more sensitive to gist-related interference. Notably, the older adults in the intervention group exhibited shorter fixation durations and frequencies within the interference region, leading to better verbatim memory. These findings demonstrate age-related differences in the susceptibility to interference in verbatim and gist memory and provide new directions for cognitive interventions to improve episodic memory in older adults.Keywords: aging, gist memory, verbatim memory, inhibitory function intervention, multinomial processing tree models