Changes in stimulus features across episodes can lead to proactive interference. One potential way to avoid such interference is to detect and later recollect changes. The Memory-for-Change framework assumes that attention during encoding is necessary for detecting and later recollecting change. We tested this assumption in the current experiment by assessing the covariation of attention and change recollection in a large undergraduate sample (N=132). Participants studied a list of word pairs comprised of four seamless blocks. Some word pairs repeated across all four blocks (A-B 4 ), some were unique to each block (C-D), and some pairs repeated across the first three blocks with a changed response in the fourth block (A-B 3 , A-D). To measure attention during study, participants periodically responded to probes asking whether they were on-or off-task. Participants then completed a cued recall test of responses from the fourth study block. To measure change recollection, participants were asked to identify which pairs changed during study and to report the earlier responses for pairs they identified as changed. Replicating prior findings, recollecting change was associated with proactive facilitation in recall of the most recent responses. Extending these findings, the frequency of on-task reports was positively associated with cued recall accuracy and change recollection in both within-and between-subjects comparisons. Together, these findings implicate a critical role for self-reported attention during study in change recollection, which is associated with proactive facilitation in recall of changed responses.

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Retroactive interference refers to the impairing effects of new learning on earlier memories. The memory-for-change framework posits that being reminded of earlier information when learning new information can alleviate such retroactive interference and lead to facilitation. Such effects have been shown in younger adults, but the extent to which remindings play a role in retroactive effects of memory for older adults has not been examined. We address this issue here in two experiments using variants of an A-B, A-C paired associate paradigm. Participants studied two lists containing associated word pairs that: repeated across lists (A-B, A-B), included the same cue with a changed response in List 2 (A-B, A-C), or only appeared in List 1 (A-B), and then completed a cued-recall test of List 1. Participants reported List 1 reminding during List 2 study and recollection of reminding at test. Neither age group showed retroactive interference in overall List 1 recall, but younger adults showed poorer source monitoring by producing more List 2 intrusions onto List 1 recall than older adults. For both age groups, reminding was associated with retroactive facilitation for List 1 recall, whereas the absence of reminding was associated with retroactive interference. The benefits associated with reminding and recollection of reminding were greater for younger than older adults, partly because younger adults were able to recollect remindings more often than older adults. Together these results implicate a role for reminding in retroactive effects of memory that is more facilitative for younger than older adults.

People use memory for observed actions to guide current perceptions. When actions change from one situation to the next, one must register the change to update memory. Research suggests that older adults may sometimes update memory for naturalistic action changes less effectively than younger adults. We examined whether this deficit reflects age differences in attention allocation by cuing attention to changed action features and testing memory for those features. Older (N = 47) and younger (N = 73) adults watched movies of an actor performing everyday activities on two fictive "days" in her life. Some activities began identically on both days (e.g., reaching for dessert) and ended with features that changed across days (e.g., cookie vs. brownie). Half of the changed activities included audio-visual cues on both days that signaled changed features, whereas the other half did not include cues. Memory updating was assessed through cued recall and two-alternative forced choice recognition (2AFC recognition) of recent action features. Cuing attention improved cued recall but not 2AFC recognition of recent action features for both older and younger adults. These recall benefits were associated with improved recollection that changes had earlier occurred. The present findings suggest that although older adults sometimes experience deficits in aspects of attention, using cues to guide their attention to features of everyday activities can enhance their event memory updating when the later memory test emphasizes recollection-based retrieval.

Healthy older adults experience episodic memory deficits when temporal context reinstatement is required, but they also have preserved semantic memory. Semantic associations can therefore support or impair older adults' retrieval from a specific temporal context. The present experiment characterized the roles of pre-and postretrieval processing in age-related memory differences when semantic and temporal contexts worked together or in opposition. Participants studied 2 lists of exemplars from either the same category or different categories and recalled from one list. During recall, participants reported all words that came to mind and made source monitoring judgments. Both groups initiated first retrievals similarly from primacy positions on delayed tests, but older adults initiated first retrievals from later recency positions on immediate tests. Older adults took longer on average to initiate subsequent retrievals, especially when recalling from List 1 and when exemplars from the same category appeared in both lists. Further, trial-level analyses showed that retrieval latencies were longer when fewer responses were produced, and older adults produced fewer responses. When response production was equated, retrieval latencies were more comparable for both age groups. Finally, when lists included exemplars from the same category, older adults produced intrusions earlier and monitored them less effectively on immediate tests, but both age groups showed near-perfect intrusion monitoring when lists included exemplars from different categories. Collectively, these findings show that both pre-and postretrieval processing contributed to age-related recall differences when semantic associations facilitated or opposed reinstatement and monitoring of temporal context.