Article
Contextual Information and Memory for Unfamiliar Tunes in Older and Younger Adults
Faculty Journal Articles
Publication Date
1-1-2011
Description
We examined age differences in the effectiveness of multiple repetitions and providing associative facts on tune memory. For both tune and fact recognition, three presentations were beneficial. Age was irrelevant in fact recognition, but older adults were less successful than younger in tune recognition. The associative fact did not affect young adults' performance. Among older people, the neutral association harmed performance; the emotional fact mitigated performance back to baseline. Young adults seemed to rely solely on procedural memory, or repetition, to learn tunes. Older adults benefitted by using emotional associative information to counteract memory burdens imposed by neutral associative information.
Disciplines
Journal
Psychology and Aging
Department
Psychology
Link to Published Version
Citation Information
Samantha A Deffler and Andrea R Halpern. "Contextual Information and Memory for Unfamiliar Tunes in Older and Younger Adults" Vol. 26 Iss. 4 (2011) p. 900 - 904 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrea_halpern/42/