Socio-economic status, social class and memory performance: a critical response to Herrmann and Guadagno (1997)

Richardson, John T. E.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-0720(1998120)12:6<593::aid-acp579>3.0.co;2-p

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Seamon et al (2002) suggested that hits and false alarms on recognition tests are based on gist memories for experience whereas performance on recall tests depends more on accessing verbatim traces of the presentation of individual targets. This raises the interesting possibility that the SES-related deficits in children's memories are localized within the ability to retrieve the meaning relations between targets, a suggestion consistent with the findings from Richardson's (1998) meta-analysis. This is also consistent with the observation that SES-related differences in memory could be the result of differences in prior experiences (see also Dartigues et al, 1992).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…As it turns out, SES differences in memory are reasonably well established. In a meta-analysis by Richardson (1998; see also Guadagno & Herrmann, 1998;Herrmann & Guadagno, 1997), it was shown that SES differences in memory are related to both what is being remembered (content) and the context in which it is being memorized. For example, Newcomb and Collins (1979) found that children of low SES remembered less about a television program with a White middle-class family than did children of middle SES but more about a program with an African American lower-class family even when the child viewer's ethnicity was controlled.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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True and False Memories in Maltreated Children

Howe

Cicchetti²,

Toth³

et al. 2004

Child Development

104

100

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Differences in basic memory processes between maltreated and nonmaltreated children were examined in an experiment in which middle-socioeconomic-status (SES; N = 60), low-SES maltreated (N = 48), and low-SES nonmaltreated (N = 51) children (ages 5-7, 8-9, and 10-12 years) studied 12 Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists. Using recall and recognition measures, the results showed that both true and false memories increased with age and, contrary to some speculation, these trends did not differ as a function of maltreatment status. However, there were differences in overall memory performance as a function of SES. These results are discussed in the broader framework of children's memory development and the effects of the chronic stress associated with child maltreatment on basic memory processes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

True and False Memories in Maltreated Children

Howe

Cicchetti²,

Toth³

et al. 2004

Child Development

104

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Given that social forces, including social stratification, influence adult development indirectly through a variety of pathways (see Baltes, 1987;Featherman, Smith, & Peterson, 1990;Mayer, Maas, & Wagner, 1999), it is not prudent to assign any and all predictive power of social stratification variables to the construct of an engaged lifestyle. Indeed, Herrmann and Guadagno (1997) and Richardson (1998) recently discussed correlations of SES with memory performance in children and adults in terms of a number of hypothetical mediating mechanisms such as physical health, emotional adjustment, test anxiety, strategic behavior in the testing context, and familiarity with assessment contexts. Herrmann and Guadagno summarized the state of the literature as follows: "With so many hypotheses and so little systematic investigation, any conclusion about the positive correlation of SES and memory would be premature at this time" (p. 118).…”

Section: Measurement Of Engaged Lifestylementioning

confidence: 99%

On the problem of detecting effects of lifestyle on cognitive change in adulthood: Reply to Pushkar et al. (1999).

Hertzog

Hultsch²,

Dixon³

1999

Psychology and Aging

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The authors respond to issues raised about data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study and further explain concerns regarding evidence for the engagement hypothesis. Discussion focuses on the use of social stratification variables such as occupational prestige and educational attainment as measures of an engaged lifestyle. It is argued that (a) tests of the hypothesis should focus on the relationship of behaviors and activities thought to be proximal beneficial influences on adult cognitive development; (b) persuasive evidence for engagement effects from existing data require demonstration of effects of intellectual activities that are statistically independent of associations of social status with intellectual and cognitive development; and (c) currently available longitudinal data do not provide definitive evidence regarding the benefits of an engaged lifestyle on cognitive change.The belief that staying mentally active during adulthood can promote or enhance intellectual and cognitive function in late life is widely held by laypersons and scientists alike. According to Arbuckle, Maag, Pushkar, and Chaikelson (1998), an engaged adult lifestyle is associated with a more complex social environment, in which "intellectual abilities are more likely to be challenged, practiced, and reinforced, resulting in the development and maintenance of higher levels of intellectual ability in later life" (p. 663). Recently, we (Hultsch, Hertzog, Small, & Dixon, 1999) used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent change factors to determine whether activity patterns were related to level and change of performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks in data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (VLS). Although engagement in activities thought to be intellectually demanding (e.g., reading novels, playing bridge) did relate to 6-year longitudinal changes in cognition in our sample of older adults (ages 55 to 84 at initial test), we also observed that there were strong concurrent changes in both cognition and activity levels. This finding led us to estimate an alternative model, one in which changes in cognition caused reduced intellectual activity levels in older adults.That both models provided reasonable representations of the data led to a major shift in our thinking. Like others in the field, we entered the analysis with the prior expectation that the stream of causal influence ought to extend from an engaged lifestyle and cognitively demanding activities to changes in cognition. Our analysis led us to conclude, however, that the field had not adequately addressed the

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“…There is also some evidence for sex differences in working memory and reaction times (DeLuca et al 2003 ; Meinz and Salthouse, 1998 ), with men having better cognitive performance on these tests than women. Additionally, higher socio-economic status has been associated with better cognitive function in later life (Herrmann and Guadagna, 1997 ; Richardson, 1999 ) and will be investigated as a potential predictor of memory in the current study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mood and cognition in healthy older European adults: the Zenith study

et al. 2014

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BackgroundThe study aim was to determine if state and trait intra-individual measures of everyday affect predict cognitive functioning in healthy older community dwelling European adults (n = 387), aged 55-87 years.MethodsParticipants were recruited from centres in France, Italy and Northern Ireland. Trait level and variability in positive and negative affect (PA and NA) were assessed using self-administered PANAS scales, four times a day for four days. State mood was assessed by one PANAS scale prior to assessment of recognition memory, spatial working memory, reaction time and sustained attention using the CANTAB computerized test battery.ResultsA series of hierarchical regression analyses were carried out, one for each measure of cognitive function as the dependent variable, and socio-demographic variables (age, sex and social class), state and trait mood measures as the predictors. State PA and NA were both predictive of spatial working memory prior to looking at the contribution of trait mood. Trait PA and its variability were predictive of sustained attention. In the final step of the regression analyses, trait PA variability predicted greater sustained attention, whereas state NA predicted fewer spatial working memory errors, accounting for a very small percentage of the variance (1-2%) in the respective tests.ConclusionMoods, by and large, have a small transient effect on cognition in this older sample.

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Socio-economic status, social class and memory performance: a critical response to Herrmann and Guadagno (1997)

Cited by 4 publications

References 29 publications

True and False Memories in Maltreated Children

True and False Memories in Maltreated Children

On the problem of detecting effects of lifestyle on cognitive change in adulthood: Reply to Pushkar et al. (1999).

Mood and cognition in healthy older European adults: the Zenith study

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