Effects of errors on memory performance and brain activity in healthy younger and older adults
Description: Making mistakes is a natural part of everyday perception and learning. Research on how errors during spoken word recognition and learning affect later memory has painted two different pictures in young and older adults. Younger adults' memory has been shown to benefit from mistakes, while errors have been found to harm memory in older adults. A direct consequence of this work has led to different recommendations on whether errors should be adopted or avoided based on age. However, there is a discrepancy in the nature of the learning paradigms used to assess memory in these two groups. In experimental psychology, younger adults' memory has been tested using conceptual materials that are traditional in academic settings, while older adults' memories tested by neuropsychologists have used materials based on perceptual frameworks. A recent study addressing this inconsistency has found evidence that conceptually-generated errors improve memory in younger and older adults, and perceptually-generated errors harm memory in both groups, but the dissociation was stronger among older relative to younger adults. The present research aims to better understand the conditions under which errors during word perception and learning can harm or benefit memory, the cognitive and neural mechanisms behind error resolution, and how these processes change with age. Understanding how mistakes during verbal learning affect memory across the lifespan has some urgency as the number of older adults in Canada's population is expected to nearly double in the next decade. This work could change how speech and memory rehabilitation is practiced and influence remedial training to mend age-related declines. Moreover, successful outcome of this research will advance public health by providing guidelines for maximizing life-long learning in older adults, as well as supplying knowledge for future work on interventions for populations with more significant language and memory deficits.
Amount: CA$1,000
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support
Start date: 2016-04-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Investigator: Amanda Lash
Institution: Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care (Toronto)
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 146115_1
OpenAlex ID: G2011589920