The Effects of Video Presence on Associative and Source Memory Among Younger and Older Adults in a Virtual Social Simulation

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine how video presence in a simulated virtual socialization meeting would affect younger ( n = 60) and older adults’ ( n = 65) associative and source memory. Participants were instructed to watch a simulated virtual meeting where speakers introduced themselves with a name and an occupation, half with their video on and the other half with their video off. Participants completed a recognition test of intact, rearranged, and new name–occupation pairs. For pairs recognized as old, participants were asked to identify whether the pair was presented with their video on or off. The associative memory accuracy (i.e., hit rate – false alarm rate) results showed a better performance in younger relative to older adults, but both age groups benefited equally from video presence. Source memory (i.e., video-on vs. video-off) results showed a significant benefit of video presence in older but not younger adults.