Fahad Ahmad

Fahad Ahmad

Researchers such as Naveh-Benjamin (2000) have suggested older adults have an age-related associative deficit due to an inability to form proper relations between unrelated items. Researchers have also suggested this deficit is also due to older adults having impaired recollection but intact familiarity (see Yonelinas 2002 for review). In three experiments I examined if associative memory could be improved in older adults with the unitization of pre-experimental semantic associations in the form of compound word (CW) pairs .

I recruited undergraduate students from UW and older adults from WRAP database. I tested participants associative memory of compound words presented as CW pairs and unrelated word pairs in yes-no and a forced-choice associative recognition tests. From both recognition tests, I found older adults showed a discrimination advantage for unitized compared to unrelated or non-unitized pairs. However, I found younger adults showed a discrimination advantage for CW pairs only in the forced-choice recognition test. The findings of my three experiments showed that test format influenced younger adults' use of familiarity during associative recognition of unitized pairs, and that older adults rely on familiarity than recollection for associative recognition. Unitization of pre-experimental associations as in CW pairs can alleviate age-related associative deficits.

Ahmad, F. , Fernandes, M. & Hockley, W. E. (in press) Improving Associative Memory in Older Adults with Unitization. Aging, Neuropsychology & Cognition