Feature memory and binding in young and older adults

Abstract

Intact memory for complex events requires not only memory for particular features (e.g., item, location, color, size), but also intact cognitive processes for binding the features together. Binding provides the memorial experience that certain features belong together. The experiments presented here were designed to explicate these as potentially separable sources of age-associated changes in complex memory-namely, to investigate the possibility that age-related changes in memory for complex events arise from deficits in (1) memory for the kinds of information that comprise complex memories, (2) the processes necessary for binding this information into complex memories, or (3) both of these components. Young and older adults were presented with colored items located within an array. Relative to young adults, older adults had a specific and disproportionate deficit in recognition memory for location, but not for item or for color. Also, older adults consistently demonstrated poorer recognition memory for bound information, especially when all features were acquired intentionally. These feature and binding deficits separately contribute to what have been described as older adults' context and source memory impairments.Memories for complex events include multiple kinds of information, such as information that was of central interest to the participant or observer (e.g., semantic features), information about the time or the place at which the central information was acquired, the modality ofpresentation, a speaker's voice, associated emotions, item parameters such as color and size, and so forth. Research findings suggest that older adults have impaired memory for such kinds of information (see Kausler, 1994, for a review). Simply having intact memory for these various features would not necessarily yield intact complex memories, however. Consider that when recollecting a complex event, we do not remember a jumble of different kinds of information or features. We do not remember blue, brown, pen, table, but rather a blue pen on a brown table. Thus, complex memories not only require memory for particular features, but also certain cognitive processes for binding the features together. Binding provides the memorial experience that certain features belong together. There has been no systematic research to evaluate the possibility that age-related changes in memory for complex events may arise from deficits in (I) memory for the kinds of informa-

Assessment of age-related changes in inhibition and binding using eye movement monitoring.

“…However, older adults did not show a more robust eye movement effect for the relations among the objects when compared with the younger adults; in fact, only the younger adults showed eye movement evidence of memory for the relations. Because our results were obtained using an implicit eye movement task, consistent findings of an age-related binding impairment obtained with explicit memory instructions, as in studies of associative memory (Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996;Light & La Voie, 1993;Light & Singh, 1987;Naveh-Benjamin, 2000;Winocur et al, 1996), are unlikely to be solely attributable to the increased anxiety and arousal caused by explicit memory instructions (cf. Rahhal et al, 2001).…”

Visual short-term memory binding deficits in Alzheimer's disease: a reply to Parra's commentary.

“…Furthermore, he contends that this has not been the case for relational memory tasks involving object-location associations (Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996) when tested in healthy old people.…”

“…We also note that the task we used is quite different from those employed by Chalfonte and Johnson (1996). They used different tests of identity memory, location memory and identity-location binding.…”

Neurocognitive aging: prior memories hinder new hippocampal encoding

“…One crucial component of context is the spatial location where items were experienced. Aged adults are impaired in multiple aspects of spatial memory, from recalling where an item was located [5,6] to navigating through a recently learned environment [7,8]. In addition, memories of aged individuals are more adversely affected by increased similarity between contexts or objects [9,10].…”