Adult age differences in working memory
Abstract
Active and passive measures of short-term memory over a large segment of the adult life span were compared. Two hundred twenty-eight volunteers, aged 30 to 99 years, performed the digit span forward and backward task, the Peterson-Peterson task, and a new working memory task in which active manipulation of information is emphasized. Age differences were slight for passive tasks. For the working memory task, significant declines were found between the ages of 60 to 69 and 70+ years. It is suggested that the age differences may be due to a decrease in the flexibility with which processing changes are made.
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Our null results are more in line with findings that working memory task performance occurs as a monotonic function of age.
“However, our null results are more in line with findings that working memory task performance occurs as a monotonic function of age [59].”
From Dual N-back working memory training in healthy adults: A randomized comparison to processing speed training. (2016) · cites this paper as [59]
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- Authors
- Dobbs, A. R., & Rule, B. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Alberta (CA)
- Venue
- Psychology and Aging
- Published
- 1989
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 500-503
- ISSN
- 0882-7974 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1498
- OpenAlex
- W2009301825
- Cited by
- 466
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 6.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychology and Aging (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- working memory, age differences, short-term memory, digit span, cognitive aging, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Middle Aged, Task Performance and Analysis
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