Aging slows access to temporal information from working memory

Abstract

To evaluate the impact of aging on controlled memory search operations, we investigated the retrieval of temporal order information from working memory (WM). Young and older adults completed a relative judgments-of-recency (JOR) task. In each trial, participants studied 5-item lists and were presented with two probes from the study list. Participants indicated the probe that had appeared more recently in the study list. Analyses of accuracy data showed that young adults were more successful in correctly detecting the more recent probe compared with older adults. To evaluate the retrieval dynamics, we applied Hacker's (1980) serial scanning model on reaction time data. Results from the model fits revealed that older adults were slower in engaging in the serial memory search operations required to access temporal order information from WM. These findings suggest that this age-related impairment in a JOR task might arise from a slower deployment of controlled memory operations, such as serial search.