Aging, encoding, and word retrieval: distinguishing phonological and memory processes

Word retrieval deficits are one of the most common complaints among older adults. The Transmission Deficit Hypothesis predicts that phonologically similar names would be harder for older adults to encode and retrieve. Results indicated that overall older adults encoded and recalled fewer words than younger adults when given only one trial and when given multiple trials to criterion. For both experiments, proper names were more difficult to retrieve than common nouns, and phonologically similar words were more difficult to retrieve than phonologically different words for both older and younger adults. Age differences were not evident for retrieving phonologically similar items or names but older adults did need more trials to encode phonologically similar items and names. Age differences for phonologically similar items and names appear related to encoding processes with retrieval of these items consistently hard for both older and younger adults.     

Preliminary Evidence For The Effects Of Aging And Multiple Sclerosis On Cognitive Performance: An Analysis Based On Effect Size Estimates

Background/Study Context: Although cognitive impairment is common in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), there are limited data on older adults with MS. The current pilot study involved a preliminary examination of cognitive impairments across a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment in older adults with MS compared with older adults without MS.

Methods: Twenty older adults with MS and 20 older adults without MS (≥60 years of age) underwent cognitive assessments, including the Trail Making Test (TMT) and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). The primary analytical model involved independent-samples t tests on the TMT and RBANS scores. The analysis focused on ½ SD (i.e., Cohen’s d of 0.5) for judging the differences as meaningful.

Results: Overall, the study hypotheses were supported such that older adults with MS demonstrated decreased cognitive performance that exceeded ½ SD compared with the older adults without MS.

Conclusion: This preliminary study demonstrated moderate and meaningful differences in cognitive performance in older adults with MS compared with older adults without MS. This suggests a clear need for identifying strategies for alleviating cognitive impairment in older adults with MS.     

Negative Arousal Increases the Effects of Stimulus Salience in Older Adults

Background/Study Context: Stimuli compete for mental representation, with salient stimuli attracting more attention than less salient stimuli. In a recent study, we found that presenting an emotionally negative arousing sound before briefly showing an array of letters with different levels of salience increased the reporting of the more salient letters but decreased reporting of the less salient letters (Sutherland & Mather, 2012, Emotion, 12, 1367–1372). In the current study we examined whether negative arousal produces similar effects on attention in older adults.

Methods: Data from 55 older adults (61–80 years; M = 70.7, SD = 5.1) were compared with those from 110 younger adults (18–29 years; M = 20.3, SD = 2.3) from Sutherland and Mather (2012). Neutral or negative arousing sound clips were played before a brief presentation of eight letters, three of which were presented in a darker font than the others to create a group of high- and low-salience targets. Next, participants recalled as many of the letters as they could. At the end of the study, participants rated the emotional arousal and the valence of the sounds.

Results: Higher ratings of emotional arousal for the sounds predicted a greater advantage for high-salience letters in recall. This influence of arousal did not significantly differ by age.

Conclusion: The effects of negative arousal on subsequent attention were similar in older adults as in younger adults. Moreover, the results support arousal-biased competition theory (Mather & Sutherland, 2011, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 114–133), which predicts that emotional arousal amplifies the effects of stimulus salience in attention and memory.     

Start-Up Time and Walking Speed in Older Adults Under Loaded Conditions During Simulated Road Crossing

Background/Study Context: The safety of older pedestrians in road crossing has received considerable attention but previous studies measure gait characteristics only under unloaded conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the start-up time and walking speed under loaded conditions that reflect daily activities of older adults in Singapore.

Methods: Thirty-two older adults (age (SD) = 69.4 (7.0) years) and 20 young controls (age (SD) = 23.1 (2.0) years) walked under four conditions: (1) unloaded, (2) pushing a stroller loaded with 10 kg, (3) pulling a shopping cart loaded with 15 kg, and (4) carrying two shopping bags each loaded with 2 kg. Start-up time was determined from video recordings and walking speed measured using timing gates. A mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA; age by walking condition) with repeated measures was applied.

Results: Start-up times were slower in the stroller and shopping cart conditions compared with the unloaded and shopping bags conditions. Loading reduced walking speed, with the shopping cart being the slowest, followed by the stroller and then the shopping bags. A significant interaction was found, with young controls reducing their speeds more substantially while handling the stroller/cart than older participants.

Conclusion: Loading caused a compromise in start-up time and walking speed. The start-up time was slower when pushing a stroller or pulling a shopping cart but remained unaffected by carrying shopping bags. Speed was reduced under all loaded conditions, with a greater effect in young than older participants when handling a stroller or shopping cart.     

Cognitive Aging and Training: The Role of Instructional Coherence and Advance Organizers

Background/Study Context: This study investigates whether there is a need for age-specific computer-based instructional design. The authors examined the effect of two design principles, instructional coherence and advance organizers, on learning outcomes of older and younger adults. Instructional coherence refers to the idea that people learn more deeply when information not directly relevant to learning goals is removed from training. Advance organizers are organizing frameworks for intended training content.

Methods: Participants consisted of younger and older adults (mean ages were 21.7 and 75.1, respectively). Younger adults were university students and older adults were recruited from various sources, including retirement homes, senior activity centers, and online communities. We used a 2 (young, old) × 2 (low coherence, high coherence) × 2 (no advance organizer, advance organizer) between-subjects design and analyzed data using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).

Results: Analyses revealed that (1) older adults performed worse on learning outcome measures compared with younger adults; (2) instructional coherence significantly improved the learning performance of both older and younger adults (Hypothesis 1 supported); and (3) advanced organizers improved the performance of older adults but did not affect the performance of younger adults in transfer tasks (Hypothesis 4 supported).

Conclusion: The latter finding (that advance organizers had differential effects on older and younger adults) suggests that perhaps there is a need for age-specific instructional formats. Future researchers should further explore whether and how age affects the learning process by examining the effect of different design principles on learning outcomes of older and younger adults.     

Changes in Functional Status After Aquatic Exercise in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes and Arthritis: A Pilot Study

Background: Arthritis is highly prevalent among older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and presents a barrier to participating in regular land-based physical activity.

Aim: To examine the effects of a 12-week community-based aquatic exercise program for overweight older adults (≥55 years of age) with T2DM and lower body arthritis.

Methods: For this quasi-experimental study, participants completed an exercise specialist-led program consisting of 60-min, twice/week, of aquatic activities at intensities that increased at 4-week increments from 40% to 65% of heart rate reserve for a total of 12 weeks. Clinical and functional measures were completed at baseline and after 12 weeks.

Results: Thirty participants completed baseline measures. Overall, half were female, mean (standard deviation = SD) age 67.7 (7.0) years, A1c = 6.7 (1.3)%, BMI = 35.9 (8.6) kg/m², average daily steps = 4207 (5504). Actual mean heart rate responses during aquatic exercise sessions were at 85%, 90%, and 85% of what was prescribed at weeks 4, 8, and 12, respectively. After 12 weeks, improvements were found for 6-min walking distance (+16.6, SD 43.4 m; p = .05), sit-to-stand repetitions (+1.0, SD 2.0; p = .01), and BMI (?0.2, SD 0.6 kg/m²; p = .04)

Conclusion: This pilot study showed that an aquatic program produced functional improvements among overweight older adults with T2DM and arthritis.     

If You Are Old and Do Not Want to Fall into The Traditional Stereotype—Be Physically Active!

Background/Study Context: Based on the stereotype content model and the behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes map (Cuddy et al., 2008; Advances in experimental social psychology [Vol. 40, pp. 61–149], New York: Academic Press), we examined whether being physically active may challenge the traditional stereotypes related to older adults.

Methods: We compared how 94 participants (M_age = 24.48 years, SD = 7.15 years) judged one of three target groups (older adults in general, physically active older adults, and socially active older adults), with regard to perceived status and competition, warmth and competence judgments, emotional and behavioral reactions.

Results: Results showed that being physically active was associated with higher status and competence. Physically active older adults were specifically viewed as an admired group eliciting both active (helping) and passive facilitation (associating) tendencies.

Conclusion: Beyond the well-known health perspective related to the regular participation of older adults in physical activity, the present results open a social optimistic perspective, in which being physically active seems a promising way to challenge the widespread and resistant stereotype content of older people commonly perpetuated.     

Age Differences in the Effects of Experimenter-Instructed Versus Self-Generated Strategy Use

Background/Study Context: Interactive imagery is superior to rote repetition as an encoding strategy for paired associate (PA) recall. Younger and older individuals often rate these strategies as equally effective before they gain experience using each strategy. The present study investigated how experimenter-supervised and participant-chosen strategy experience affected younger and older adults’ knowledge about the effectiveness of these two strategies.

Methods: Ninety-nine younger (M = 19.0 years, SD = 1.4) and 90 older adults (M = 70.4 years, SD = 5.2) participated in the experiment. In learning a first PA list participants were either instructed to use imagery or repetition to study specific items (supervised) or could choose their own strategies (unsupervised). All participants were unsupervised on a second PA list to evaluate whether strategy experience affected strategy knowledge, strategy use, and PA recall.

Results: Both instruction groups learned about the superiority of imagery use through task experience, downgrading repetition ratings and upgrading imagery ratings on the second list. However, older adults showed less knowledge updating than did younger adults. Previously supervised younger adults increased their imagery use, improving PA recall; older adults maintained a higher level of repetition use.

Conclusion: Older adults update knowledge of the differential effectiveness of the rote and imagery strategies, but to a lesser degree than younger adults. Older adults manifest an inertial tendency to continue using the repetition strategy even though they have learned that it is inferior to interactive imagery.     

Age and obesity-associated changes in the expression and activation of components of the AMPK signaling pathway in human right atrial tissue

Background

Obesity is associated with an increased incidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction, heart failure, and premature cardiac aging. In the heart, intrinsic activation of the AMP-dependent protein kinase (AMPK) plays a pivotal role in the stress response to ischemia and hypertrophy. Furthermore, AMPK is an important regulator of cardiac mitochondrial biogenesis. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of obesity and aging on the AMPK signaling pathway in human cardiac tissue.

Methods

60 male cardiac surgery patients were included in the study and divided into 4 groups (old normal weight: ON; old obese: OO; young normal weight: YN, young obese: YO) according to their body mass index (18.5–25: normal weight or 30–35: obese) and age (< 55 years: young or > 70: old) with 15 patients each. Right atrial tissue (RA) was analyzed for the expression of the AMPK upstream kinases CAMKK and LKB1, activation of AMPK as well as phosphorylation of the AMPK downstream targets ACC, eEF2, mTOR and eNOS. Epicardial adipose tissue was analyzed for the expression of the endogenous AMPK activator adiponectin. The metabolic state of all patients was further characterized in fasting blood samples.

Results

Old patients (ON, OO) and young obese (YO) subjects displayed higher fasting glucose, insulin and leptin serum levels compared to the young, normal weight group, although HbA1c was below the threshold required for the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Serum adiponectin as well as total adiponectin protein expression in epicardial adipose tissue was decreased in these three groups. Analyses of adiponectin isoforms by native gel electrophoresis revealed significant differences in the high molecular weight (HMW) isoforms between the groups. Despite the low total serum adiponectin and HMW adiponectin, AMPK activation was high in the RA of obese patients (YO, OO). Among the AMPK upstream kinases, LKB1 expression showed a strong positive correlation with AMPK activation. While the phosphorylation of the AMPK downstream targets mTOR, eEF-2 and ACC was not altered, phospho-eNOS was significantly lower in old patients (ON, OO). Despite strong AMPK activation, mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration were impaired in old (ON, OO) and young obese (YO) subjects.

Conclusion

These data indicate that obesity and aging result in significant changes although many direct parameters in the AMPK signaling pathway are not changed in the same direction. LKB1 may represent a stronger activator of the AMPK pathway than adiponectin or the CAMKKs in human right atrial tissue.     

Do Older Adults Perceive Postural Constraints for Reach Estimation?

Background/Study Context: Recent evidence indicates that older persons have difficulty mentally representing intended movements. Furthermore, in an estimation of reach paradigm using motor imagery, a form of mental representation, older persons significantly overestimated their ability compared with young adults. The authors tested the notion that older adults may also have difficulty perceiving the postural constraints associated with reach estimation.

Methods: The authors compared young (M_age = 22 years) and older (M_age = 67) adults on reach estimation while seated and in a more postural demanding standing and leaning forward position. The expectation was a significant postural effect with the standing condition, as evidenced by reduced overestimation.

Results: Whereas there was no difference between groups in the seated condition (both overestimated), older adults underestimated whereas the younger group once again overestimated in the standing condition.

Conclusion: From one perspective, these results show that older adults do perceive postural constraints in light of their own physical capabilities. That is, that group perceived greater postural demands with the standing posture and elected to program a more conservative strategy, resulting in underestimation.     

Interlimb Practice and Aging: Coding a Simple Movement Sequence

Background/Study Context: The purpose was to determine if aging interacts with the coding of a simple spatial-temporal movement sequence.

Methods: An interlimb practice paradigm (24 participants; 12 young adults [age: 23–29]; 12 old adults [age: 65–78]) was designed to determine the coordinate system (visual-spatial/motor) that is used to code the movement sequence. Practice was scheduled over 2 days involving either the same visual-spatial or the same motor coordinates. On Day 3, two retention tests (Day 1/Day 2) were conducted.

Results: Keeping the motor coordinates the same during acquisition resulted in superior retention only for younger adults.

Conclusion: The data provide strong evidence that the motor code plays a dominant role in acquiring simple movement sequences for younger adults, but not for older adults.     

Intellectual and personality differences between community-living and institutionalized older adult females

The purpose of the present study was to investigate simultaneously differences between normal institutionalized older adults and community-living older adults with respect to intelligence/cognitive test performance and personality. Participants were 25 community-living females (M age = 72.9 yrs., SD = 6.34) and 25 institutionalized females (M age = 80.0 yrs., SD = 6.46). Intellectual/cognitive ability was assessed by the WAIS, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Form L-M), Ravens Coloured Progressive Matrices; personality was assessed by the Hand Test, a projective technique. Several multivariate analyses (discriminant analysis) were conducted. Results suggested that even when controlling for age and level of education, institutionalization appears to be associated with intellectual/cognitive as well as personality deficits. The findings were discussed in terms of the potential implications for the professional working with institutionalized older adults.     

Perceptions of Competence: Age Moderates Views of Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease

Background/Study Context: Older adults have more complex and differentiated views of aging than do younger adults, but less is known about age-related perceptions of Alzheimer’s disease. This study investigated age-related perceptions of competence of an older adult labeled as “in good health” (healthy) or “has Alzheimer’s disease” (AD), using a person-perception paradigm. It was predicted that older adults would provide more differentiated assessments of the two targets than would younger adults.

Methods: Younger (n = 86; 18–36 years) and older (n = 66; 61–95 years) adults rated activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and memory abilities of a female target aged 75 years, described as healthy or with AD. Data on anxiety about aging, knowledge of and experience with aging and AD, knowledge of memory aging, and positive and negative biases toward aging and AD were also collected.

Results: Older adults perceived the healthy target as more capable of cognitively effortful activities (e.g., managing finances) and as possessing better memory abilities than the AD target. As predicted, these differences were greater than differences between targets perceived by younger adults. The interaction effect remained significant after statistically controlling for relevant variables, including education and gender. Additionally, exploratory analyses revealed that older adults held less positively biased views of AD than younger adults, but negatively biased views were equivalent between age groups.

Conclusion: The results demonstrate that mere labels of “healthy” and “Alzheimer’s disease” produce significant and subtle age differences in perceived competencies of older adults, and that biases towards AD vary by age group and valence. Our findings extend the person-perception paradigm to an integrative analysis of aging and AD, are consistent with models of adult development, and complement current research and theory on stereotypes of aging. Future directions for research on perceptions of aging are suggested.     

Individual Differences in Task-Specific Paired Associates Learning in Older Adults: The Role of Processing Speed and Working Memory

Background/Study Context: The role of processing speed and working memory was investigated in terms of individual differences in task-specific paired associates learning in a sample of older adults. Task-specific learning, as distinct from content-oriented item-specific learning, refers to gains in performance due to repeated practice on a learning task in which the to-be-learned material changes over trials.

Methods: Learning trajectories were modeled within an intensive repeated-measures design based on participants obtained from an opt-in Internet-based sampling service (M _age = 65.3, SD = 4.81). Participants completed an eight-item paired associates task daily over a 7-day period.

Results: Results indicated that a three-parameter hyperbolic model (i.e., initial level, learning rate, and asymptotic performance) best described learning trajectory. After controlling for age-related effects, both higher working memory and higher processing speed had a positive effect on all three learning parameters.

Conclusion: These results emphasize the role of cognitive abilities for individual differences in task-specific learning of older adults.     

Recognition of Self-Referent Stimuli in People With Dementia: Names and Pictures as Prosthetic Memory Aids

Individuals with dementia have difficulty distinguishing their personal items and spaces from others, which creates problems in long-term care (LTC). Prosthetic memory aids may help facilitate recognition. This study assessed which self-referent stimuli were best recognized by individuals with dementia. LTC residents with dementia (n = 27) were shown arrays of three stimuli and asked to select the picture/name that featured them. Stimulus arrays included photographs from young adulthood, middle adulthood, current age, and their printed name. Most participants (95%) completed the assessment and recognized at least one stimulus type above chance levels. Participants recognized printed names most accurately (M = 89%). Current photographs were recognized least (M = 64%). Printed names and early adulthood photographs facilitate self-recognition in individuals with dementia.     

Maternal and grandmaternal age effects on developmental instability and wing size in parthenogenetic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Drosophila mercatorum</Emphasis>

Age is known to have a large effect upon fertility and survival. Here we study the impact of maternal and grandmaternal age on wing size and developmental instability (DI) in offspring using a parthenogenetic strain of Drosophila mercatorum. This enabled us to cancel out any genetic variance between individuals. The mean centroid size of the wings was estimated in offspring from four maternal/grandmaternal age groups. Further, DI was calculated by measuring phenotypic variability and correcting this index for the bias produced by the environmental variability. The offspring developed from eggs laid by mothers belonging to four different age groups with young (Y) or old (O) mothers and grandmothers. The age groups are: YY, YO, OY and OO, with the first letter referring to the age of the grandmother and the second letter to the age of the mother. We consider flies between three to six days of age as young and flies between 15 and 18 days of age as old. We found that environmental variability was present in this study and therefore the correction for its bias on phenotypic variability was shown to be necessary for a correct interpretation of the results. DI displayed, for most of the traits investigated, a significantly higher level in the OY and OO age groups, as compared to the YY and YO age groups. The mean centroid size of the wings were in almost all cases significantly different among the age groups with the highest mean value in the OY group for all traits. This investigation shows that offspring are affected by maternal age and that this effect can be transmitted maternally across more than one generation.     

The Promotion of Well-Being in Aging Individuals Living in Nursing Homes: A Controlled Pilot Intervention with Narrative Strategies

Objectives: The study aimed: (1) to compare levels of well-being and distress in older adults living in nursing homes with those living in community; and (2) to test the feasibility of a positive narrative intervention for improving well-being versus a control art-and-craft intervention in a nursing home setting.

Methods: Sixty older adults participated in the study (M = 77.37; SD = 5.00), Male = 20 (33.3%). In Study 1, 30 adults living in nursing homes were compared with 30 community-dwellers using the following measures: Satisfaction with Life Scale, Psychological Well-being Scale, Social Well-being Scale, Geriatric Depression Scale, and sleep quality. In Study 2, the same 30 adults living in nursing homes were allocated to a positive narrative intervention group (N = 20) or to a control group (N = 10) and assessed at post-intervention.

Results: In Study 1, older adults in nursing homes presented more depression and impairments in well-being, compared to community-dwellers. In Study 2, at post-treatment, individuals assigned to the narrative intervention reported significantly increased well-being and sleep quality.

Conclusions: Although preliminary, results showed that older adults living in nursing homes are more vulnerable than community-dwellers. These patients experienced improvement when given a short group positive narrative intervention applicable in nursing homes.

Clinical Implications: A brief group intervention based on fairy tales yielded improvements in well-being and sleep quality in nursing home residents, who enjoyed and appreciated its content. These promising results need to be confirmed by future randomized controlled trials.     

Do Healthy Elders,Like Young Adults,Remember Animates Better Than Inanimates? An Adaptive View

Background/Study Context: It has been found that young adults remember animates better than inanimates. According to the adaptive view of human memory, this is due to the fact that animates are more important for fitness purposes than inanimates. This effect has been ascribed to episodic memory, where older people exhibit difficulties.

Methods: Here the authors investigated whether the animacy effect in memory also occurs for healthy older adults. Older and young adults categorized words for their animacy characteristics and were then given an unexpected recognition test on the words using the Remember/Know paradigm. Executive functions were also evaluated using several measures.

Results: For both overall Recognition and Remember responses, a reliable animacy effect on hit rates was found in young but not in older adults. Controlling for certain executive functions led to reliable and comparable animacy effects in both groups. There was no reliable effect of animacy on Know responses.

Conclusion: Thus, unlike young adults, older adults do not remember animates better than inanimates; this pattern can be attributable to a decline in executive functions.     

Effect of low-cost resistance training on lower-limb strength and balance in institutionalized seniors

Background/Study Context: Given the rapid increase in the aging population worldwide, fall prevention is of utmost importance. It is essential to establish an efficient, simple, safe, and low-cost intervention method for reducing the risk of falls. This study examined the effect of 12 weeks of progressive elastic resistance training on lower-limb muscle strength and balance in seniors living in the Rumah Seri Kenangan, social welfare home in Cheras, Malaysia.

Methods: A total of 51 subjects qualified to take part in this quasi-experimental study. They were assigned to either the resistance exercise group (n = 26) or control group (n = 25). The mean age of the 45 participants who completed the program was 70.7 (SD = 6.6). The exercise group met twice per week and performing one to three sets of 8 to 10 repetitions for each of nine lower-limb elastic resistance exercises. All exercises were conducted at low to moderate intensities in sitting or standing positions. The subjects were tested at baseline and 6 and 12 weeks into the program.

Results: The results showed statistically significant improvements in lower-limb muscle strength as measured by five times sit-to-stand test (%Δ = 22.6) and dynamic balance quantified by the timed up-and-go test (%Δ = 18.7), four-square step test (%Δ = 14.67), and step test for the right (%Δ = 18.36) and left (%Δ = 18.80) legs. No significant changes were observed in static balance as measured using the tandem stand test (%Δ = 3.25), and one-leg stand test with eyes opened (%Δ = 9.58) and eyes closed (%Δ = ?0.61) after completion of the program.

Conclusion: The findings support the feasibility and efficacy of a simple and inexpensive resistance training program to improve lower-limb muscle strength and dynamic balance among the institutionalized older adults.     

Memory Performance of People with Different Dementia Severity for Different Semantic Hierarchies

Background: Memory disorder is a significant symptom during early-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Changes in semantic memory are frequently seen in terms of forgetting names, loss of word meanings, and difficulties in linguistic expression. Significant semantic degeneration is not a normal phenomenon in elderly persons, and it may be an important sign in the early stages of progression of AD.

Methods: Thirty-four participants aged between 60 and 86 years were recruited for an experiment with a 3 × 4 × 2 factorial design that was conducted to explore the differences in semantic memory performance among controls with normal cognitive performance (NC), individuals classified as mildly cognitively impaired (MCI), and individuals with AD.

Results: The performance of participants diagnosed with mild AD was poorest for the attribute category, and there was no difference in response to different word frequencies. Although those diagnosed with MCI performed similarly to healthy elderly participants in terms of semantic memory, their performance profiles for different semantic hierarchies were similar to those of participants with AD.

Conclusion: Semantic memory had degraded among participants with AD and MCI, and the rate of semantic degeneration was different in different semantic hierarchies.